Week 4 - My favourite video blog

Ask A Ninja

Askaninja.com is a comedic video podcast that portrays a man dressed as a ninja who discusses various areas of interest.

Through his video podcast, the ninja goes through a variety of topics each week. There is no specific theme to what he chooses to discuss, however, the way his podcast is filmed is very unique. Instead of one long video clip of himself, a series of short clips are placed together to create a choppy, but well-crafted video segment. Regardless of what the topic of discussion is, the ninja summarizes his thoughts and perceptions of the topics and gets straight to the point of what they are about.

The ninja mainly discusses subjects of a less serious nature, but on occasion will argue topics such as global warming or even net neutrality, however, he spins a comedic twist on them and makes the subjects easier to watch. By using light-hearted subject matter he captivates the audience. Using comedy as a blogging technique, he is able to reach an assortment of viewers. The majority of the content can be considered as fluff, but the use of sarcasm catches the attention of people of all ages. Also, each video is no longer than 3 minutes long, which allows for a more concise summary of his proposed topic, and is appealing to those whose attention spans are not very long.

The short, choppy editing technique catches the attention of the viewer and allows for a more interesting post because there is constantly some sort of action going on, rather than continuous and therefore monotonous dialogue, which can become boring after a while. The whole point of video blogs is to captivate the audience, while conveying a message or some sort of information. The content of the Ask a Ninja's actual videos are often not valuable because of the aim of the blog is to entertain, rather than inform, however, he does open up several topics that would be worth examining further, even on a more serious note.