Facebook Live is not “liked”: Construction of liveness and the reception of video livestreaming

Abstract

Not all information communication technologies are liked equally by their intended users. Situated within media richness and media ritual theories, this study conceptualizes the notion of liveness for live video streaming and its implementation for Facebook Live. A longitudinal analysis of 21 top hit radio stations in the United States in the years 2016 and 2018 found that, overall, Facebook Live did not garner audience approval. A closer examination of the Facebook Live content showed that while in-studio content featuring radio announcers in their traditional setup did not solicit followers’ likes, Facebook Live posts that featured out-of-studio locations gained more approval in 2018. These findings show how technological-algorithmic platforms are leveraged by radio stations, even if they are not endorsed by social media users. The implication of these findings is that the meaningful integration of video live streaming is still negotiated on social media platforms.