(in)Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Dave Huth and why won't he shut up? I come at this stuff from several angles. The content angle: I have an MFA in computer graphics design from the Rochester Institute of Technology, thus I make pictures with digital tools (I like to make media). The egghead angle: I teach art, digital video, and the occasional media-related sociology class at the college level (I like to analyze media). The consumer angle: I love a good story well told (I like to see media). The insatiable curiosity angle: I believe this stuff is very important for culture, democracy, and individual life (I like to talk about media). Where does this site's dumb name come from? Gotta be unique. Gotta be snappy. Gotta be obscure. I started out calling the site "Vloggie," which, let's face it, is even worse. What exactly is this site about? I'm not "exactly" sure. There's a growing group of people who think that something has gone terribly wrong with public discourse in the U.S., and they're searching for ways to restructure the communication forum democracy needs to thrive. There's also a small but rapidly growing group of people who believe the primary means of mediated communication in our society is about to (or has already begun to) undergo radical change. The concerns of these groups are producing a huge creative effort trying all kinds of communication experiments with new tools, distribution, and subject matter. I'm fascinated by this social movement, and use this space to comment on it and participate in related discussion. You're invited to participate as well! What's a "vlog" and is that all you talk about? "Vlog" is shorthand for "video blog," which is nothing more than a simple, streamlined distribution of video moving across the Internet. Video blogs are not all I'm interested in, but they're at the core of what I'm most interested in. Cultural communication and public discourse are undeniably dominated by television. Tomorrow, TV as we know it may be gone, but I tend to think that moving pictures will still be the focus of whatever comes next. So I pay special attention to attempts at creating a new system of visual media. That doesn't mean I don't think/talk about podcasting, text blogging, and interesting experiments in TV and film. But I do give the most attention to those who are messing around with video online. Aren't you just another opinionated blowhard with too much time on his hands? Probably! Why don't you share your own ideas on this blog and see if we can figure it all out collectively?