Vlogging, Learning, and the Capitalist System

     I agree with the article that Vlogging can be seen as a way for the public to participate in society and become producers and sellers instead of mere consumers. It gives the public or people a manner in which to transmit their messages and their perspectives in a multimodal fashion. They can post videos, do live streams, and post conversations live. They no longer have to depend on others for the transmission of information.

     This is also helpful in the educational field. vloggers can post useful information regarding different topics or subject areas which can be used by teachers in different subject areas to teach a specific topic or idea. This permits for an exchange of information through a medium which the youth is familiar and which they know how to utilize and understand.

     But vlogging also puts teachers in a quandary because teachers have to relinquish power to someone else. Teachers have come to recognize that the students are the experts when it comes to vlogging. They have grown up in a technology savvy time in which they are bombarded with and use technology on an everyday basis. This makes students themselves not only receivers of information from their teachers. But makes the students participants in the culture and their educational learning. Their learning is no longer "teacher-driven" but "student-driven." And this allows for a participatory learning experience. The students get more out of this type of experience instead of a teacher led experience. This is because they are thought of as experts in their areas.

     However, participatory vlogging also has its economic side. We live in a Capitalist society. A society in which we are driven by money. The people vlogging do it more for a monetary goal than for the spread of information. Their distribution of information is sometimes dependent on how many viewers view their videos, the donations the people make in support, and the sales that the producers make in order to have a profit. So the vlogging reasons for the public may not always be altruistic or for a learning purpose. They are many times  made with a bias in mind. This is because, using "Youtube" as an example, people participate in this website. But they do it with the goal of posting their videos for fame and for money. Because the more views a person has on the website, the more money the website pays out to them. According to Youtube, the producers who pass a million views get paid by the company and every time thereafter someone views their video, they get another check for the following views. Everyone participates with the goal of attaining fame, renown, and monetary gain along with the transmission of knowledge.