Mobile broadcasting: the whats and hows of live video as a social medium

A new type of social medium, which allows users to broadcast live video from mobile devices to websites on the internet, is becoming increasingly popular. We provide a qualitative content analysis of a sample from four such services. The analysis specifically focuses on the topics presented, camerawork, and coordination, in order to investigate the possibilities and barriers to wider adoption of this new social medium. Although the services are growing in numbers of users, the study reveals an immature application area. People struggle to find interesting topics to broadcast and to manage the camera in a way that presents them in an appealing form. But there are also examples of topics such as artistic performances and tours, as well as ways to conduct live transitions and coordination, that point to a more medium-specific way of using these services. The results indicate that providing the opportunity to broadcast live video is not enough, and that there is now a need to design for amateurs' appropriation of camera handling techniques.