Television 2.0: YouTube and the Emergence of Homecasting

The creation and distribution of user-generated content via video-sharing sites such as YouTube and GoogleVideo both expands and alters our rapport with the medium of television. This article proposes to introduce the concept of “homecasting” (as distinct from broadcasting and narrowcasting) as a step towards designing a meaningful framework for understanding the current mediascape and the technological, social, and cultural forces shaping it. Rather than rendering conventional television programming obsolete, the emerging institutional practice of homecasting is dependent upon the customary practices of broadcasting and narrowcasting. But how do new sites for homecasting help “institutionalize” this new cultural phenomenon? And what are the different proprietary and cultural strategies involved in shaping new social practices and cultural forms? For media scholars, the challenge is to make sense of an up-and-coming institutional practice in a field of forces still dominated by established media institutions, systems, and forms.