I remember years ago, there was a guy with a popular blog and he sold it. The new guy decided to do vlogs instead of blogs. If I remember right, he pretty much drove the blog into the ground with that move. I think the original guy ended up eventually buying it back and returned to blogging.
A couple years ago, we bought some new equipment and there was no manual, no how-to guides, no documentation of any kind. What they did was sent you a bunch of links to the videos that explained everything. That was one of those occasions where I had to watch and listen at 2x speed.
Too often, doing video is the lazy way out. An article or sometimes even a list would convey the information faster and more effectively.
In my opinion, I think too many people jump to doing video/audio without thinking about whether that is the best use case. Granted, a lot of people these days can't be bothered to read something that might take them two or three minutes to read but will watch a fifteen or twenty minute video that's not any more informative than the written piece.
Somethings, it is better to show than describe. So a video makes sense for that. And, these days, sometimes manuals are so bad or, inexcusably, photos in manuals are so bad, that you need to find a video to figure it out.
Interviews and discussions are generally good for podcasts. Things involving comedy and music work too. Some instructional material works as well, depending on what it is. Some things are difficult to explain or difficult to make sense of from an article whereas when you see it, it's pretty easy.
Of course not all instruction is best suited for "live action" either. A few years ago, I took a class that was like an hour at night. When sitting through some of the sessions, I couldn't help but think that I don't know how I made it through years and years of seven or eight hour days sitting in a classroom. An hour was hard enough.
People have different learning styles too. Or maybe it's the quality of the presentation. I used to very good at learning how to do things just by reading about them in a book or article. These days, it's easier when I see it being done than reading about it. Question is, is that because I have changed in someway that makes it easier for me to learn by seeing rather than reading? Or, is it because the people writing how-to's and instructions and so forth these days are just so bad at writing them that it's much more difficult to learn by reading?
At any rate, in my opinion, creators need to give more thought to the best way to present the material they are offering, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. Or, they may wish to consider offering a variety of options instead of just one.
