MY PAPER ON STREAMING

Something that has gained prevalence over the years is online streaming. According to Merriam-Webster, streaming is "the act, the process, or an instance of streaming data or of accessing data that is being streamed." Essentially, it is a continuous "stream" of information, which allows you to view content without needing to download it. Most forms of media accessed by the internet, such as Netflix and Spotify, use streaming to broadcast their content.

My first encounter with streamed content was through YouTube. Myself, and a million others have watched countless videos on YouTube. I am part of the audience, the people who view and enjoy the content through streaming. And by analyzing our viewing habits, by observing which videos get the most attention, the content creators can deduce what the audience wants and create more content about it. This is called finding a need.

When a content creator on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, or any other content-sharing site wants to increase their engagement, they want to learn about their audience and what they want to see. By appealing to the viewers, it keeps them engaged and invites more viewers who are interested in similar content. Every person is different, but when a large group of people like one thing, it's reasonable to think they might have something in common other than their interest. Here, the content creator can learn about the audience demographics. The better they understand their demographics, the better tailored content they can make. Most forms of media creation follow this, even outside of streamed content. The reason they do all this is because the more positive engagement streamed content gets, the more successful it is.

This logic applies to live streaming as well. No matter the category or genre of their streaming content, one of the fastest ways to develop their channel is to learn what kind of audience they are attracting and know what they want. For example, if a streamer notices their videos or streams of them playing a video game with creative editing gets more views, they could try to make more content in that style.

To become more popular when starting out, you can observe other people's audiences and what they respond to in order to find a need to fulfill.

To find a need in streaming, I researched popular forms of streaming. Entertainment is the most common type, and one that is popular and relatively simple to dive into is live streaming on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. Out of all the choices I could pick, I decided to focus on the audience of Minecraft streamers. There are a lot of categories because of the vast amount of video games in different genres, but Minecraft streamers stood out to me due to their massive amounts of success, drawing in viewers from all over the world. What's also notable is the game itself. Minecraft is an open world sandbox game, and people use it to their advantage to create storylines or create immense landmarks ingame. I believe it's because of this versatility people flock to these streams. The streamer and their personality is also a huge factor of it.

There is a need for entertainment, and by learning about the types of audiences that are drawn to this content, I can do further research into what other types of entertainment these demographics consume and take it into account. While there isn't a lack of Minecraft Streamers, you can stand out and find your audience by being creative, being yourself, and being honest.

streaming. (n.d.). In The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/streaming

Ltd, T. S. S. (2022, October 5). 21 Essential YouTube Statistics You Need to Know in 2022. The Social Shepherd. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/youtube-statistics

What is Streaming - Definition, Meaning & Explanation. (n.d.). Verizon Fios. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.verizon.com/info/definitions/streaming/

What is Audience Profiling? Understanding Your Audience to Boost Your Growth. (2021, July 21). Rockcontent. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://rockcontent.com/blog/audience-profiling/

Burstin, A. (n.d.). 9 Ways to Grow Your Twitch Channel in 2022. Gleam. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://gleam.io/blog/twitch-growth/