Identifying emergent oral practices in videoblogging

This paper presents findings from a preliminary study of the oral performances of videobloggers – producers of online, short-form, personal videos. We contend that understanding the potential of videoblogging technology beyond its mere video-recording capabilities requires a deeper and more nuanced analysis of the affordances of videoblogging technology, as well as the oral practices that shape them, and are shaped by them. In this research we ask, what elements of orality and oral practice transmute in the technologically-mediated environment of videoblogging, in what context(s), and in what way(s)? Analysis of the content of a diverse selection of videoblogs produces evidence for the emergence of three oral practices enabled by the technological affordances of the videoblogging platform: (1) the use of hypermedia; (2) the use of metatext; and (3) the use of speech-cuts. We suggest that videobloggers use these techno-oratorical practices to (a) compensate for limitations imposed on their oral performance by the technological medium, and (b) extend orality beyond limitations that manifest in physical, face-to-face situations. These findings have implications for designers of video-based, desktop, and mobile communication technologies