Uploaders' definition of the networked public on YouTube and their feedback preferences: a multi-method approach

Since its launch in 2005, video-sharing service YouTube has become one of the most popular Web 2.0 platforms with a daily increment of over 150,000 videos. Still, despite the large research body on the platform, it remains unclear for whom ordinary YouTube users upload their videos. A first qualitative study indicates that uploaders distinguish three types within YouTube's networked public. First, videos are uploaded for a select group of people with whom the uploader shares an offline bond (offline-identified public). Second, uploaders define part of their potential viewers as people with whom they are unfamiliar, but with whom they share a similar interest, opinion or practice (online-identified public). Third, uploaders also take into account the YouTube platform as a whole (online-unidentified public). A second, quantitative study of 450 recent uploaders validates these findings and tests the proposed associations with the importance that is attributed to receiving different types of feedback. As hypo...