Live and Kicking: Digital Live Broadcasting Technologies, Participating Strangers and News Mobility

Abstract

This study investigates the interconnections between digital live broadcasting technologies and participating strangers in the news context, from a sociotechnical perspective. This is done by focusing on the LiveU Solo device, designed for live broadcasting by produsers on social media. Based on a thematic analysis of users’ comments on three leading video gadgets’ reviews of the Solo device on YouTube and on data gathered through semistructured in-depth interviews with a LiveU manager and several “prodnewsers” (news media produsers), findings point to financial and technical considerations as the main factors that propel the assessment of innovative digital live broadcast technologies by users. In so doing, they illustrate a particular form of actor participation in the news.