Origins

While I could not find the specific origin of the vlog, what is clear is that the vlogging community started experiencing its boom in 2004 or 2005. In January of 2005, vloggers gathered in the very first “Vloggercon”, a conference for vloggers, which the Vloggercon blog describes as “[meeting] up and [talking] about what happened over the past year and what the future holds”. As the 2005 Wired.com article mentions, “vlogging doesn’t have any wildly popular device like the iPod to help fuel the vlogging trend – yet”, but the most likely case is that the vlog was partially pushed forward by the iPod and the growth of user-made audio pieces--podcasts. Jumping from audio to video seems like a natural progression.

In Computer: A History of the Information Machine, authors Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray compare the development of the personal computer with the development of the radio from page 207 through page 209. While wireless telegraphy was a technology that was institutionalized as a form of communication, it was the group of amateurs and hobbyists who played key roles in the formation of the radio set box. They were fascinated by the technology and created the radio receivers, and they thrilled in being able to listen to other fellow hobbyists. In fact, “By 1917, there were 13,581 licensed amateur operators in the United States, and the number of unlicensed receiving stations was estimated at 150,000.” When the radio music box finally emerged, it needed an audience, and that audience was indeed the pre-existing amateur radio population that kicked off what we still know as radio today.

How does this all relate to the vlog? The answer is Youtube.

As the company history page says, “Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.” Youtube, which was founded in February of 2005, notably close to the date of the first Vloggercon, may have picked up on the amateur-hobbyist’s need for a new medium. This medium would then allow them to broadcast themselves not just through sound, but through visuals as well. Perhaps the most important feature of the vlog is that everyone and anyone can view each other’s content. People with accounts can comment on the vlogs, and commenters can respond to each other’s comments. Vloggers can even post vlogs in response to each other vlogs, and vloggers can make a video private or public as one of the only means of controlling who can view their vlogs.

It seems that the Youtube slogan, “Broadcast yourself”, definitely carries a lot of meaning.