rough draft intro to thesis topic!

2. streaming mobile video, civic production, & the redefinition of the public realm

3. civic stream (Latin civicus, from civis citizen) : of or relating to a citizen, a city, citizenship, or community affairs. : a mass of people or things moving continually in the same direction: a continuous flow of data (audio or video) t ypically having a constant or predictable rate. (v) : of or concerning the people as a whole. (n) : ordinary people in general; the community. public

4. research questions What type of content is being created through streaming mobile video, and how much of this content has civic value? (big question)

6. methodological approach > qik.com > ustream.tv > kyte.tv > flickr.com

9. quantitative > e-interviews with up to 10 users who’ve posted ‘civic’ videos > questions about their goals, choice of the mobile platform, choice of streaming, expected impact of their video, and other factors about their motivations, intentions, and self-identification > content analysis + interpretive textual analysis + ethnomethodological approach qualitative > lurking on streaming {mobile} video sites > categorizing mobile videos by type (shot in public/private space; journalistic, entertainment, personal, political; amount of viewer discussion, etc.) > tracking which videos have ‘civic’ value > ~10/day (~1,800 total over six months)

14. chapters Abstract I. Introduction > Main research question + related sub-questions > Why is this topic important? (Lack of research in this area; it’s an emergent media practise) II. Mobility, representation, participation > Brief history of multimedia production on portable devices + developments in mobile (phone) video > Portable objects as mediators of public infrastructures, events, actions by everyday people > Traditional mobile multimedia (and now live streaming video) as blurring the boundaries of public and private III. The two-way mirror: A case study of streaming mobile video online > Methodological approach (watching and categorizing content (ustream.tv, qik.tv, kyte.tv); interviewing producers of key ‘c ivic value ’ videos > Theoretical positions: ethno-informed content analysis + interpretive textual analysis (vs. Ito/Okabe’s ‘technosocial frame of ethnographic analysis’) > Quantitative findings: analysis of aggregated streaming site content surveyed > Qualitative findings: analysis of producer goals, self-representation (as activist? journalist? politically engaged?), context for producing video, use of mobile as mode of capture, access to computer/camcorder/editing > Participation by online viewers IV. Implications for future trends and research V. Conclusion