Week Seven: Narrowcasting and Broadcasting

With all the forms of television shows, to news programs, YouTube, podcasts and Viddy clips, just to name a few, it would be easy to categorize and define the whole lot as broadcasting, as it is a way for people to share information, with a broad way of audiences, but this is not always correct.

Broadcasting is defined as "to transmit programs of signals from a radio or television station, or to make something widely known disseminate something" (Naficy, 2003).

Broadcasting is a well known term, and up until a few weeks ago, thought that it was the only term for videos and other communication pieces when they were presented to the public, but apparently not.

Narrowcasting is "to aim a program or programming at a specific, limited audience or sales market." (Naficy, 2003).

The concept of Narrowcasting is still new to me, but makes sense when dealing with messages that are not intended for everyone and nor do they interest everyone.

A current example of narrowcasting is with the Fox Footy Channel available on Foxtel in Australia, they broadcast games every week to the subscribers of the channel, but then narrowcast specific shows to limited audiences, such as 'The Club' which focused solely around the Collingwood Football Club, which would not interest other subscribers.

YouTube is an interesting example of the word "Broadcast." It features in their logo, but are the users really broadcasting themselves? I tend to think not. If for example, someone uploads a video of a Whale, only people who are interested in searching for whales will view it, so its more Narrowcasting.

Reference:
Naficy, H 2003, ‘Narrowcasting in diaspora: Middle Eastern television in Los Angeles’, The media of diaspora 2003, Routledge, London , pp. 51-62