Leaping from the Print Sphere to the Vlogosphere

Soat's biggest disappointment has been lack of viewer participation. He has been asking viewers to contribute video segments, akin to letters to the editor in the print world. The show even provides an 800 number for call-ins and a "contribute" button there on the main page. And in an attempt to generate some response, the show has been running a contest in which contributors with the best videos or ideas for videos win free Logitech cameras. Soat hopes this will "seed the clouds," and that when more members of the audience have cameras, the show will get more video contributions. "Right now I guess we're a little ahead of the curve," he says.

One of Soat's main objectives with the show's content is to do what he can to prevent it from being dry and boring. "One can't underestimate the importance of entertainment value," he says. "We are providing information through entertainment." Not surprisingly, he points to John Stewart's The Daily Show as an inspiration. Indeed, even the program's graphic logo, which contains the subhead: "On the Beat, Offbeat," apes The Daily Show.

In keeping with his aim to entertain, Soat encourages potential contributors to "act out," cautioning only: "No profanity," in his guidelines for contributors, available on the site. Apparently anything short of that is acceptable behavior. "Feel free to be as animated or downright strange as you see fit," the guidelines advise.

Asking vloggers to be animated or act strange? That’s about the only part of Soat’s enterprise that isn’t a big leap.