INTO THE VIDEOLOGS!

What is a vlog? How young people entertain the audience just speaking about themselves?

Let's GRAMPS!

G - VideoLogs

R - Mixed! (it depends on the youtuber: everyone of them has a different population target, so the language varies as a consequence)

A - Mainly young people, but anyone interested in the topic can actually see it 

M - Multi modal

P - Entertain/inform/persuade

S - A really large range of topics (beauty, social, gameplay, everyday life, prank...)

Each vlogger follows the main contextual features:

• The Youtubers face the camera directly, on their own, addressing the viewer, for make him feel part of what is said.
• It's important to target a particular audience for the channel (children, young adults, shopping addicted, nerds...)
• Usually who speaks records himself in a "personal space", as his bedroom, or any room of his house in general, his school... It makes the video more personal and relaxed.
• The youtuber chooses a topic, or more topics to focus on. If they choose one, it means they are passionate about it or, at least they should have an amount of knowledge about it. You cannot speak about sport if you ignore which national team won the last world cup, as you cannot speak about fashion if you believe that Prada is a city...!

If you know the genre of the vlogs, you probably have already heard about:

- Banners: a kind of advertisement which consist in a stripe image.

- Link: web connection to an another page/channel/video...

- Sponsors: companies which are interested in a partnership with you.

- Adverts: spaces where the companies can show what they want to sell.

About the language:

Vloggers use mainly the 'internet speech' into their videos, because it appeals to a younger audience, who use social media and can understand and relate to what they're saying.

Youtubers may also use a particular sociolect which applies to their chosen subject (beauty vloggers use make-up terms which are specific to them and their audience).

How does Zoella engage her audience?

• Direct mode of address: Zoella addresses her audience by looking them directly in the eyes. Because Zoella is vlogging her life, she makes the audience to feel part of it as she is communicating with her friends.
• Body language: Zoella seems really relaxed while she talks about her life, as she is in her natural environment. That's why the audience feel comfortable too. Zoella uses a huge variety of hand gestures and facial expressions that help her to communicate.
• Hand-held camera: It's a generic convention of the youtubers. It actually help who is speaking to seem confident with the audience. It would ruin the realism of the video if someone else was filming her, because it would feel 'set up' and the relationship with who is watching would become weak.
• Language: Zoella doesn't swear in her videos because she is aware of her audience, which has an age that starts really young, so she behaves politely, knowing that young children shouldn't be hearing rude language.

enjoyed?