Vlogging (short for video blogging) is a term that did not enter the journalism world until quite recently. When people discovered the irresistible concept of using their handheld cameras and SmartPhones to capture current events, the term began to spread and make its way into new media.

One of the very first events ever captured by this type of media was the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, which occurred on December 26th, 2004. It was an underwater earthquake that caused mass destruction in multiple countries in the area with an estimated 230,000 deaths in total, not accounting for the tons of bodies that remain undiscovered. The waves hitting the coast were increasingly strong and tall, the highest wave coming to almost 100 feet. Although there was an apparent lag of about one hour between when the earthquake commenced and the tsunami began, it still came as a shock to most people in the area.

Being that the natural disaster was extremely chaotic, it was impossible for newscasters to get to the scene and broadcast their report on what was going on. Because the event could not properly be covered, it was very difficult for the public to know what was happening. Thankfully, citizens who were around the affected area had cameras and made the influential decision to record what they saw. They then uploaded these videos onto sharing sites such as YouTube, and to this day they can still be watched (video #1 and video #2 are examples of these types of videos).

The biggest appeal of this type of blogging is that it is easy – the only you need to participate is a compact camera with the ability to upload. Although the quality of the videos tend to be less than perfect, it is the idea of being able to record a live event and share it with people in a matter of minutes that makes vlogging a popular technique. Particularly with big happenings such as natural disasters, vlogging can help spread the word and raise awareness towards it.

One big benefit to blogging as opposed to typical news broadcasting is the amount of credibility one receives. In the example of the Sumatra-Andaman disaster, people who recorded the waves hitting the locations could not have manipulated or changed the videos in any way. This makes it easier for the public to get a balanced view on the event, not to mention a front row, commercial-free seat to it.

Vlogging is a type of new media that I believe will continue to thrive as long as SmartPhones and other handheld recording devices continue to exist. It was used in many events to come after 2004, such as Hurricane Katrina. Due to its believable nature and authentic feel, vlogging is a form of media that has the capacity to involve all ages and reach across to people worldwide.

Amy Midanik-Blum

The Lewinsky Scandal

November 15th, 1995: Miss Monica Lewinsky, a 23 year-old intern, and President Bill Clinton have their first affair of nine at the White House. The streak of affairs would end a bit less than two years later in March 1997, but the scandal regarding the sexual content of the affair was only beginning.

After it became clear to the public that there was something between Lewinsky and Clinton, she was transferred to an office in the Pentagon in order to dilute rumors about the two. However, rumors still circulated and Mr. Clinton was asked to confront them directly in an interview on live TV. In this interview, he explicitly denied such affairs. But when a trusted friend of Lewinsky’s, Linda Trapp, came forward with evidence that he could not deny, Clinton was compelled to restate his testimony and thus confessed to having a sexual affair with Lewinsky.

The Drudge Report

A year later, a man named Matthew Drudge made a daring journalistic move. He was the proud owner of a news aggregation site that he titled The Drudge Report. The site itself was nothing special, just a simple layout with a standard font and large headlines. The blog was largely unknown – until he made the decision to blog about the Lewinsky scandal. He was the first news outlet to do so, so in exploiting the President’s sexual history with a young woman he actually made history himself. He didn’t see it as a large accomplishment at first, but he soon realized that what he had done would change journalism permanently. In posting what would later become one of the most well known blog posts in history, Drudge set the standard for all online articles to come.

My Experience/Opinion

After watching Adam and Martin’s presentation, McKenna and I became very interested in the details of the Lewinsky scandal itself. We went on YouTube and watched the most well known interview of her on 20/20 in order to acquire more information. After watching a few parts of it, we learned that there was a lot more to the case than exploited in The Drudge Report. Lewinsky not only seemed to have a difficult past, but it was revealed that Clinton was not her first or only affair – she previously had one with a married man while she was a senior in high school.

Through watching her on 20/20, I began to connect her story to that of John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe during his presidency in 1962. I remember reading an article a while ago about her thoughts on the affair and how upset she was at being portrayed as a sexual object. I have every reason to believe that Monroe was a good person at heart and didn’t mean any harm by her actions, but for some reason I could not feel the same sympathy for Monica Lewinsky. It occurred to me at one point that perhaps she just wanted to be loved and was looking for the type of attention that her father never gave her, but I couldn’t see her side of the story very well through her laughing and smiling in the interview. I do see many similarities between her and Monroe in terms of the situation itself, however I feel that Lewinsky’s intentions were not as innocent as Monroe’s seemed to be.

I do respect Drudge’s decision to put the information regarding the Lewinsky/Clinton affair out there. It was an important step for journalism and an even bigger one for the US.