Running head: HOMECASTING

Homecasting
Name
Institutional Affiliation

HOMECASTING

2
Homecasting

Media is a very important part of our daily lives as it impacts us in very different but
personal way. From politics to entertainment, we can get information quickly various sources
available to us. With the up rise of homecasting, there has been a shift in trend in the type of
entertainment or means of getting information from the traditional broadcasting methods to
platforms that contain amateur and personalized videos. Recently, Vines and Snapchat have
become the trending media, but the most popular ones are like YouTube, Baily Motion, and
GoogleVideo. It is important to find the differences and similarities between homecasting and
television broadcasting for instance meaning finding the definition and information on the latter
so as to have a proper comparison.
Since the mid-20th century, there have been two distinct forms of broadcasting in mass
media. Television and radio were the main mediums used to broadcast information to the
consumers in the general public. They established their dominance swiftly and became an
integral part of the lives of the people worldwide. The Television, in particular, was very
effective than the radio since it was able to communicate through sound and visual effects which
made it even more appealing to the public (Shoemaker and Resse, 2013). Advertising spots
became more expensive in television broadcasters as they were aware of the impact their services
had on the people. Regardless of the number of broadcasters who popped up every so often, the
market space was too big for them to have any serious completion. However, the thing that set
aside leading from ordinary broadcasters was the content they had which was the main attraction
for the masses. Many decades later, the Internet brought forward a new way for content to be
shared at a fast, cheap and direct way. The rise of Homecasting services such as YouTube, Daily

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Motion, and Google Video has enabled the general public to be content creators and share them
on a platform with hundreds of millions of regular viewers.
Since the Internet became popular in the mid-90s, technology professionals had foreseen
the decline of traditional broadcasting. The expression postbroadcasting came to signify the
notion that television would gradually fade as a distinct informational structure after converging
with the Internet and other technology. Projections of a postbroadcasting era were warranted
by a deterministic logic: they tend to reduce broadcasting to a technological system that is
meant to have an impact in social use. The expression defines the risks of subscribing to a simple
replacement theory of consecutive media constellations. When talking about transformations in
the mediascape, we have to take into account its complexities rather than prophecy its
revolutions. Broadcasting never disappeared when narrowcasting and webcasting via the Internet
became popular. On the contrary, as Jostein Gripsrud (2004: 220-22) convincingly shows the
continued importance of broadcasting in its function to serve regional and national viewers, even
in a crowded space with many channels. The distribution of user-generated content through
websites such as YouTube and GoogleVideo will not speed up televisions obsolescence.
However, they have been challenging the broadcast industrys institutional structure and its
technological and economic infrastructure for a while now.
Nowadays, with smartphones which have quality cameras, people can create short videos,
funny clips, and documentaries which are popular among the viewers. By going through these
sites, there is so much content for any one person to consume. Such is the effect of Homecasting.
Gone are the days when television had a monopoly regarding entertainment through movies,
music video, and educational documentaries. YouTube users have been able to target their niche
market which has led them to prosper regarding maximizing their talents. Many people have

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made a career in music, acting and comedy after starting from such platforms (Dhawan, 2014).
In the past, for a person to get airtime they would have to go through a rigorous process which
would be expensive, tiresome and fruitless. With the availability of such sites, all a person needs
is an e-mail address, an account in one of these websites and a working camera.
Homecasting can be defined as the use of video-sharing websites to download and upload
prerecorded, rerecorded, tinkered, and self-created audiovisual content via personal computers.
The term homecasting betrays its kinship to broadcasting on the one hand and to home video
on the other. Similarly, webcasting, the term indicates the technological convergence of
television and personal computers in the homes of individual users (Ledoux Book and Barnett,
2006), but the home has more social and cultural connotations than the web. Stuck in the rhetoric
of technology, homecasting means two-way communication through the Internet as opposed to
the restricted distribution of audiovisual content involved in broadcasting. Broadcasting provides
a centralized point where information and entertainment are efficiently distributed to citizens or
consumers. In recent decades, the centralized point of programming power has been
complemented by the decentralized distribution of audiovisual content by production companies
targeting specific niche viewers.
Narrowcasting, as this phenomenon is commonly referred to, was made possible by the
proliferation of hundreds of cable outlets engendering a fragmentation of audiences and leading
to socially splintered mediascapes (Smith-Shomade, 2004). The boom of digital channels in the
early years of the new millennium added the possibility of personal viewing schedules and
content created targeting specific consumers of preferred lifestyles and cultural tastes. Flexible
microcasting was introduced by Lisa Parks (2004: 135)referring to a set of industrial and
technological practices that work to isolate the individual cultural tastes of viewers/consumers to

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refine direct marketing in televisionthat is, the process of delivering specific audiences to
advertisers. But even the term microcasting refers to the one-way direction of media
communication, so it does not cover the contribution of self-created content via internet-based
video-sharing websites.
Television has had to adapt in some way to compete with this Homecasting wave. They
have been able to research as to why these channels are popular and realized that being able to
offer niche products is their secret. That is why nowadays it is easy to find that certain
broadcasters only offer a specific genre of entertainment regarding music and films. Broadcasters
such as Disney and Comedy Central are specialized in one are each here they excel in which is
children entertainment and comedy respectively. By doing so, they have able to maintain and add
to their consumer base even more. It should not be confused that this essay is suggesting that
sites such as YouTube can compete in terms of revenue with television broadcaster. Rather it
states that they can get more viewers due to the variety of options available to the consumer. If a
person is interested in Korean music, for instance, they can get it and if they want to see music
covers of their popular songs it is a click away. As a result, of the ability of the general public to
create their content, there has been a surge in viewership through these platforms as they can get
everything they want through them.
It is possible to see similar intertwining at the level of cultural form as broadcastings
unique product are the programs they have. Television shows have always been tradable and
consumable goods that were created for specific markets and were preferably also sold to other
regions for the same purpose. Cultural forms, including Television shows, were considered end
products and were therefore protected by laws regulating copyrights and ownership. Since the
early 1990s, we have seen the emergence of formats as a new profitable unit of marketing and

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production. Formats are half products instead of end products hence leaving space for local
specification and production, thus making them more attractive to local stations worldwide.
Formats lend themselves extremely well to incorporating local consumers to star in formuladriven reality shows tested in international markets (Waisbord, 2004). Regardless of the trends
toward globalization and internationalization, television consumers still preferably identify with
regional productions (Freedman, 2003). Furthermore, formats are commercially rewarding
cultural forms, even if they are not entirely Copyright proof. The fact that formats became
quickly accepted in the broadcast entertainment industry shows clearly the industrys ability to
adapt to new economic demands.
The new types of content created and distributed by home casters will be inevitably
defined regarding programs and formats appropriated by broadcasting organizations. As OBrien
and Fitzgerald (2006) state, video-sharing sites contain three general categories of content:
original creations, transformative derivatives, and copied or ripped content. From the
articulation of these groups, it occurs that one type of content is preying on another while
obeying a succinct hierarchy. It seems that users can only gain inspiration from television
programs, but television programs can never be derivatives of the original content created by
individual users. Moreover, in the past, television shows have also been spin-offs of users
creations. For example, programs like the hugely successful Americas Funniest Home Videos
which is completely made of self-produced content. However natural it may be to use existing
cultural forms as a point of reference, I think it is important to name and specify the type of
content produced by home casters in its right, as a means to carefully catalog the cultural
dynamics by which user agency is encouraged or inhibited. It is said that many of the most
accessible and widely known cultural forms around which meanings are forged are not shared in

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a single collectivity, but are the private properties of corporations with an economic interest in
preserving their exclusivity.
Since its takeover by Google, YouTubes terms of use are increasingly incorporating
more advertiser-friendly and owner-friendly conditions. As stated before, YouTubes terms of
use regulated the modification and re-distribution of user-generated content using a license that
comes close to a creative commons agreement. GoogleVideo, while adopting the principle of
free sharing and recycling of content, includes in its license the provision that creators make their
fruits of creative labor and metadata available to Googles servers and third parties. Google video
swiftly opens up user-generated content to information marketers, search engines, and
advertisers. Another difference with YouTubes video sharing site is that GoogleVideo offers
uploaders the possibility to showcase content for a fee, thus generating revenue that is
subsequently shared by Google and the owners of intellectual property. While such
arrangement does not principally counteract the system of free use and exchange of content, it is
one step away from a license that advocates the use of content as a creative resource. In other
words, if YouTubes definition of home casting comes close indeed to what is described as a
cooperative nonmarket production, GoogleVideos organizational model positions itself inbetween conventional broadcast models and creative commons models.
It is not to say that GoogleVideo will impose its conditions for use onto YouTube. In a
statement to the press, the new owners vowed to respect YouTubes distinct brand identity.
However, it would be nave to think that YouTubes policies will remain unmoved by
globalization (Dijck, 2007) A clear sign towards the accommodation of advertisers interests
and intellectual property rights came in January of 2007 when YouTubes Chad Hurley
announced the introduction of short commercial clips and advertisements on the site, as well as

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the introduction of a paid revenue system for popular uploads (Negi, 2016). It is clear that
Google needs time to figure out its preferred strategy, a strategy that encompasses the risk to lose
its largest asset: some of the most prolific voluntary user communities in the new branch of home
casting.
From the information provided above about home casting it is very clear that there are
similar features between it and traditional television broadcasting. Homecasting based platforms
had become more revenue oriented than they were when they first arrived in the market space.
Firstly, the use ads have been introduced in popular trending videos such as music videos from
popular artists and other similarly viral clips (Dijck, 2013). Advertisements are the primary
income generating activity of any media or broadcasting platform. Advertisements are dependent
on the streams or viewers particular sites, and broadcasters receive on a regular basis (Fjell,
2010). Popular channels and sites receive higher sums than their competitors who do not have
the same level of success like them. A site such as YouTube started playing ads before the
selected videos by the viewer who has an option to skip after a particular period. Through this,
we can see how homecasting has made these platforms to evolve to be like television
broadcasters.
Secondly, homecasting platforms have started focusing on quality content too. Like
television who look for the best possible shows, these platforms have begun rewarding popular
uploaders in a bid to encourage them to strive for a certain level or higher. Attractive content will
result in more visitors to the site which leads to more ads meaning higher income (Udo and
Marquis, 2002). Television broadcasters challenge production companies to come up with quality
programs which will be popular among the population. Viewership in any platforms depends on
the quality on offer. That is why people often subscribe to particular channels on YouTube since

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they know that the uploader will have something interesting (Cheng et al., 2008). There are
millions of videos which have low views since they are dull and flat which is discouraging to the
consumers. Television broadcasters often order pilot episodes to see how the reception for the
program will be like before they commit themselves to further episodes and seasons (Douglas,
2011). If the pilot episode receives poor ratings, they will not order any more as they will not
want to lose viewers due to it.
There are certain differences between broadcasting on the one hand and homecasting on
the other. While broadcast activity is confined to a centralized space and a central organization
that controls the supply and deliverance of signals, the Internet offers a space for a purposeful
activity where production and reception of signals occur from many individual nodes in the
network. Feeds of this type of communication are not provided by a central organization as is
with broadcasting. The absence of a centralized sender and the potential for two-way signaling
makes up the most profound difference with current broadcast organizations. It may be early to
predict a bright future for independent content producers, but one of the key aspects of homecast
technology is its ability to remove the content distributor entirely from the process (Haet al.,
2003). Political activists, families, and garage bands are equally capable of streaming their
messages across the Internet, whether person to person or a global audience. However, the
distributed nature of homecast networks does not mean that there is a lack of control of the
content.
Unlike broadcasting companies, homecast-organizations such as YouTube or
GoogleVideo do not decide what viewers get to see at what time since they have no control over
content. However, they still set the regulations for trafficking, they define the technological
conditions for uploading and downloading the content, and they need each user to agree to their

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terms of use, regardless of the fact that compliance with these rules is again in the hands of
anonymous users working from their homes.
Another difference between the two media is that homecasting enables the public to be
able to create their content anytime and post at their discretion unlike with television which is
much harder. All a person has to do to be able to get their content to their audience is create an
account and post their videos (Haridakis and Hanson, 2009). It enables many people to determine
what they want to do and provides a ready audience without the need to do much marketing. The
content creators can post a variety of different clips or focus on one type of theme in their
channel which will have little to no effect in regards to viewership. All they need to do is ensure
that they are interesting and create original and unique content. Viewers main goal is to get
entertained, and a creator can achieve this success will come after that. Numerous people have
made the leap from web sensations to worldwide stardom through this method. Furthermore,
television broadcasters might even recruit such personalities to mainstream media in a bid to
boost their viewership.
Furthermore, homecasters propose a different relationship to traditional television, a
relationship that, at first sight, seems to bear more resemblance to the making of home videos
than to watching tv programs. For decades, people have spent their free time recording family
life and showing off the results to neighbors and their relatives. But upon closer inspection, we
can see that distribution via video websites such as DailyMotion reaches people beyond the
circles of friends and relatives. Most uploading activity either caters to a specific audience of
unknown individuals who have shown similar interests or is designed to reach the widest
possible audience. Many interfaces default modes betray users preferences to open up their

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private lives to the virtual universe, and to commit personal expressions to unknown audiences.
Broadcasting traditionally signifies the central agencies situated within the public sphere, whose
mandate is to make essential information, knowledge and cultural experiences available to
everyone. Homecasting accommodates the individual in the private sphere who feels the need to
make his or her opinions and experiences available to everyone.
While broadcasting is conventionally linked to the creation of national and regional
identities, homecasting capitalizes on personal expression and identity building using uploading
ones creative content on the internet. Nonetheless, the social activities linked to the three types
of casting are tightly interconnected. Identity building and personal expression do not occur
outside the sphere of broadcast media. As a matter of fact, there is no space outside the media
world, but that mediated world is a crucial part of daily life, inundating the minds of people with
numerous modes of identification. One of the most noticeable ambitions of YouTube users is to
become part of the mainstream media world of stars and fame; a desire expressed most acutely
by music-video websites.
Television airtime is tough to get for big companies and personalities so it is easy to
imagine how hard it can be for amateurs. There has to be a long process from auditions to
casting which is a route that many people take limiting the chances of any one person to get
through (Hesmondhalgh and Baker, 2008). And even when they get there the airtime is usually
limited to not more than forty minutes weekly. In contrast, homecasting is very liberating
although not that rewarding at first, an artist or actor, for instance, is able to put their work in the
public domain which will lead to exposure and fans (Burgess and Green, 2013). Recorded
performances of rappers, comedians, and DJs where some of the uploaders announce their

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ambitions to be successful in the real world as their overall dream. It will then enable them to
create a brand for themselves which they can then use to leverage production and record
companies for their breakthroughs. The specific target of many homecasters is to be broadcast on
television shows how the mediascape creates a seamless space for progression regarding
recognition. It is no coincidence that YouTubes website logo is broadcast yourself, showing
the close interconnection between the platforms of private and public expression, between self
and the world.

In conclusion, it is clear that television is a mainstay in the communication and

entertainment segment of media. However, there are very many alternatives that have popped up
in the recent past which offer alternatives to the consumers who are looking for something
different than what is on offer. The internet has been crucial to this movement as it has eased
communication and transfer of information drastically. Nowadays there are platforms such as
YouTube where people can share their videos with others. All kinds of videos can be posted or
shared form funny clips to educational videos. The number of videos in these sites is in the
billions which show how the public are actively using them. We have been able to see the impact
homecasting has had such that Google spent huge sums of money in the purchase of YouTube.
Furthermore, through the differences and similarities between the two, it is clear that each has its
perks and the audience is in a way attracted to both for varying reasons.

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