Amanda Congdon: 21st Century Show (video blogging)
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Desert,arroyo, sand bright
“Define what you want.” Amanda Congdon
Going through the list of top bloggers and I noticed that most the bloggers were men. SO where are the famous and top female bloggers? Amanda Congdon was the first who appeared. So…plus she gives us a few tips.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Congdon
Amanda Congdon (born August 4[1],1981 in New York City) was the co-producer and host of a weekly vidcast for ABC.[2] She has an independent videoblog, Starring Amanda Congdon. She is also co-president of Oxmour Entertainment along with Mario Librandi and was the host of Amanda Across America before it concluded. However, she is probably best known for hosting the daily news show Rocketboom[3], which she hosted and produced until 23 June 2006. She is still the co-owner (49%) of Rocketboom but a controversial dispute between her and the 51% shareholder Andrew Baron has resulted in her no longer hosting or producing the show. She also was the co-executive producer of JETSET (now EPIC FU) for the first several episodes of the show.[4]
Congdon was born and raised in Manhattan and graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University.[5] Once she graduated she took a job at Saatchi & Saatchi, an advertising agency.[6] She had leading roles in Waafrika (Red Room Theater) and Independence (Manhattan Theatre Source) and, during the second season, appeared as the coat check attendant on Rocco’s The Restaurant.[6] She has also appeared on CSI, The Chris Rock Show (on HBO), a Showtime pilot and Cake Presents. She can be seen in a Northstar music video which aired on MTV2, FUSE, and VH1’s My Coolest Years.[5]
Contents [hide]
1 Involvement with Rocketboom
1.1 Departure from Rocketboom
2 Amanda Across America
3 Television
4 Current project
5 References
6 External links
[edit] Involvement with Rocketboom
Congdon began as Rocketboom’s anchor with the show’s 26 October 2004 debut and gave her own reports, often with a comedic slant.
As she went from an initial 700 viewers in 2004 to 70,000 viewers in Rocketboom’s first ten months, her success was noted by CBS Evening News, Wired, the Associated Press, and others[citation needed]. BusinessWeek labeled it “the most popular site of its kind on the Net”[citation needed]. More viewers visited Rocketboom after a 11 June 2006 interview with Congdon on CNN.[7] The following day, ABC News described her usual approach:
“ Congdon sits behind the news desk, in front of a world map, as if she’s going to report hard-hitting news, but when she starts talking, she is everything but a typical news anchor: Her eyes pop with expression, her content is quirky, and her hand gestures animated.[8] ”
Her audience continued to increase, going from 100,000 vlog viewers at the end of 2005 to 300,000 by the spring of 2006. Congdon’s catapult to fame was noted in the media. Brad Stone, writing in Newsweek, commented:
“ It helps, of course, to have talent and some youthful, Web-savvy insouciance. Amanda Congdon has both, and her daily videocast, Rocketboom, is another breakout Web hit. Congdon, 24, was a struggling actress in late 2004 when she answered an Internet ad by Web entrepreneur Andrew Michael Baron, who was looking to start a newsy Webcast. Today their edgy three-minute episodes, starring and co-written by Congdon, riff off things ranging from White House scandals to the new Web-browser wars. With 130,000 daily viewers, Congdon is now getting approached by book and TV agents. “One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from an acting coach was to go out there and create your own vehicle,” she says. “The Internet allows you to do that.”[9] ”
Amanda Congdon interviewing Jimbo Wales at the Time 100 Most Influential People Gala (8 May 2006)Congdon sometimes went on the road. One memorable episode showed her dancing in various locations throughout St. Petersburg, Russia. She has also performed her frenetic signature dance in the streets and parks of Austin and other cities. In some episodes, Congdon appeared in various Manhattan locations, talking to store managers and people on the street. In the 15 April 2005 episode, she stood in Washington Square Park and posed the question “Mac or PC?” to anyone walking by.[10] Eight months later, she returned to the same spot to ask, “Internet Explorer or Firefox?”[11] In an Office Pirates video parody of Rocketboom, Manhattanites were asked, “Coffee or tea?”, and Congdon’s news desk idiosyncrasies — her signature head swivel, “hair flip” and habitual paper tossing — were also mocked.[12]
Rocketboom’s








