Berry, Trine Bjørkmann (2015) The film of tomorrow: a cultural history of videoblogging. Doctoral thesis (PhD), University of Sussex.

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Abstract

Videoblogging is a form of cultural production that emerged in the early 2000s as a
result of the increasing availability of cheap digital recording equipment, new videoediting
software, video website hosting and innovative distribution networks across the
internet. This thesis explores the close entanglement of culture and technology in this
early and under-examined area of media production – most notably in the self-definition
and development of a specific community around video practices and technologies
between 2004-2009. These videobloggers’ digital works are presented as an original
case study of material digital culture on the internet, which also produced a distinctive
aesthetic style. The thesis traces the discourses and technological infrastructures that
were developed both within and around the community of videobloggers and that
created the important pre-conditions for the video artefacts they produced. Through an
ethnographically-informed cultural history of the practices and technologies of
videoblogging, this thesis engages with the way in which new forms of cultural and
technical hybrids have emerged in an increasingly digital age. The ethnographic
research is informed by histories of film and video, which contribute to the theoretical
understanding and contextualisation of videoblogging – as an early digital community –
which has been somewhat neglected in favour of research on mainstream online video
websites, such as YouTube. The thesis also contributes to scholarly understanding of
contemporary digital video practices, and explores how the history of earlier amateur
and semi-professional film and video has been influential on the practices, technologies
and aesthetic styles of the videobloggers. It is also shown how their aesthetic has been
drawn on and amplified in network culture, mainstream media, and contemporary media
and cultural production. Through a critical mapping of the socio-technical structures of
videoblogging, the thesis argues that the trajectories of future media and cultural
production draws heavily from the practices and aesthetics of these early hybrid
networked cultural-technical communities.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Schools and Departments:	School of Media, Arts and Humanities > Media and Film
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN4699 Journalism. The periodical press, etc. > PN4775 Technique. Practical journalism > PN4778 Special > PN4784.A-Z Other, A-Z > PN4784.V54 Video journalism T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > TK6680.5 Digital video. General works
Depositing User:	Library Cataloguing
Date Deposited:	24 Apr 2015 10:09
Last Modified:	16 Mar 2022 15:49
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/53713

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