The specifics of the vlog audience and its influence on the process of retial communication

Abstract

The demand for vlogs (video blogs) in the modern world stipulates the relevance of this work: having turned into a full-fledged media space, vlogs are steadily beginning to win back the position of leading mass media from television. The article studies the audience of vlogs as the most important factor which determines the model of communication of a vlogger and the final design of the media product as a whole and its issues in particular. The sources for the research are popular vlogs of the Runet which make it possible to trace distinguishing features of the vlog audience in comparison with the TV audience and to point out its similarities with the target audience in advertising communication. The retail communication act itself, which is initiated by a vlogger, demonstrates the similarity with the AIDMA model. As a result of the conducted analysis the author is able to make several conclusions: 1) about specific features of the audience of the vlog; 2) about the influence of the factor of the addressee on the vloggers’ work; 3) about different means of influence used by a vlogger to retain the audience’s attention and involve the audience in post-communication activity; 4) about the singularity of retail communication in vlogs. The active position of the addressee of communication in the virtual media space, the opportunity and the necessity of interactive communication for vlog promotion induce vloggers to constantly resolve the objectives of attracting and retaining the attention of subscribers, audience augmentation, and elaboration of topics for postcommunication activity of the audience. The vlog format, which is aimed at the creation and dissemination of media texts with complicated semiotics, enables and forces a vlogger to apply the widest range of verbal and nonverbal means of communication.