And Action! Live in Front of the Camera

Abstract

The arising knowledge society seems to produce its own digital services. In the last few years, with social live streaming services a new type of synchronous social media emerged. What functions do such services offer? What information need and information behavior do users of this services exhibit? Method: As a heuristic theoretical basis, the Information Service Evaluation (ISE) model was applied to analyze YouNow as a case study of this kind of new social media. The evaluation is based on an online-survey among YouNow's users as well as observations of the live-streams. Results. YouNow is mainly used by adolescents and young adults. For this group, it is important to interact with friends, be a part of the community and find ways of self-expression. This is exactly what YouNow offers its users. Most of them enjoy the functions of the service. The experience of “flow” was sometimes perceived. Possible law infringements (such as copyright and personality rights violations) were detected.