Webcast
A webcast is similar in purpose to a radio or television broadcast , but is designed for the medium of the Internet and - in the case of a live webcast - is also ahead of a radio or television broadcast due to the possibility of interaction . In contrast to the podcast, there is no locally stored media file that is therefore also available offline. Technically, it is more similar to Internet radio .
history
The term is made up of web (for the World Wide Web ) and broadcast (English for broadcast , broadcasting ) together. The broadcast program is basically live content , but the streams are usually still available as recordings afterwards ( on-demand ). Originally, webcasts were simply broadcasts streamed over the Internet . Meanwhile, however, there is an overlap with video conferencing over the Internet, because viewers are often given the opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. This version of the webcast is now referred to as a webinar - an artificial word merged from “web” and “seminar”. In contrast to a video conference, a webcast is still intended as a "one-to-several" transmission.
Content
The content of webcasts is educational or scientific rather than entertaining. Likewise, the number of viewers per webcast is often low if the content addresses specific interests. For example, courses from universities or information broadcasts from software manufacturers for their developers are distributed via webcasts. Such webcasts are more precisely referred to as webinars . An example of news content is the US video news broadcaster The Real News Network .
As an exception to this, there is also the transmission of major events such as the Live 8 concerts, for which the provider AOL reported 170,000 viewers.
See also
- Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
