Investigating Genres: The Video Essay

     The Video Essay, in my opinion, is the most popular in this time and age, especially for young adults.  It is accessible and easy to understand which is what young people find enjoyable to watch as their source of information.

• What purpose does the Video Essay usually serve? 

This genre is much like a television show.  The purpose of this genre is to get information out on a subject and have a visual image of the information, as well as a narration so that no reading needs to be done.  All of the information is gathered through a voice and a compilation of images and videos.  It involves very little effort to pay attention to the video essay and it is intriguing when there are examples to see or watch while being described.

leti_valde94. "Youtube_logo".  01/11/11 via Flickr.
Attribution 2.0 Generic License 

• Where, how, or in what context do readers usually find this genre?

Readers would have the most success finding this genre on the internet.  Youtube, social media like Twitter or Facebook, or a news website all contain easy access to informative videos.  The readers can search up on any search engine any topic that they want to know more about and there will surely be multiple videos available to watch and to learn from.  The information could be opinion based or it could be supported by trustworthy cites or texts.  The reader can watch a video essay whenever they please on whatever topic they'd like and they have multiple resources to do so.

• Who is the typical audience for the video essay?

It seems that the audience ranges from teenagers to young adults to technologically savvy older adults.  However, the young adults appear to have the most knowledge on where to find these video essays.  The young adults also seem to be the ones making a lot of the video essays, so it would make sense that they are the majority of the ones that watch other video essays.  A lot of the older generations are just used to reading to gather information, so the idea of listening and watching a video to retain information might appear to be a waste of time or not necessary when there is an article available to quickly read.

• What are some of the key features or characteristics that are unique to this genre, distinguishing it from other texts?

The video essay is distinguishable from the other genres because it is a visual text that also includes audio.  There is no need to read an article during the video essay to get the information.  Instead, the key features of a video essay is that the audience can just sit back, relax and watch a video on something that is interesting or appealing to them.  There is no work that needs to be done to get the information out.  All of the information will come to the reader through videos shown or pictures that are explained in detail.  It is a lot like an informative short movie which is appealing to a lot of younger audiences making it more and more popular.

• How would I define a video essay in my own words?

A video essay is an easily accessible way to learn information through a narration with audio, images, and videos to clearly express an opinion or information on any given topic.

 REFLECTION:
     After reading a couple of my classmates' posts about the different genres, it left me feeling a lot more confident in finding success in this class.  Marisa Kubacki's post on video essays really helped me realize that not only would I actually be able to do a video essay (since they are done everyday and I watch them frequently without even realizing what genre of writing it really is) but that I would also be able to be more myself in my posts and not worry about trying to be formal about my writing.  Her writing flowed very nicely and her voice was clear to see.  This inspired me to try to be more myself when I am writing.
     After reading Eyal Ron's post on a Quick Reference Guide, I felt much better about being able to complete this assignment and not feel like it would be impossible.  He clearly outlined the purpose of a QRG and he made his answers so concise that I realized how simple the QRG could be.  It made much more confident to find a topic that I truly find interesting and write about it in a way that someone who does not know much about it could understand.
     I am very excited to see where this class takes me and my writing skills, especially after reading these two posts.