Understanding hosted video and its uses: Conceptualizing new fields of video experience

The affordances of Internet distribution have substantially expanded the array of video that is part of the everyday video cultures of many across the globe. Scholarly frames now need to integrate “hosted video” – video distributed without licensing agreements on services such as YouTube and TikTok and through social media – into broader conceptualization of viewing cultures. Hosted video encompasses a broad and diverse range of content and represents a new “subfield” of video use best understood as a part of a broader field of use including legacy video sources (moviegoing and television). This article first explains hosted video as a subfield, then identifies distinct “encounters” enabled by the various features offered by social media and hosted video services. It then draws from focus groups and interview findings to highlight four common uses that indicate considerable consistency with other types of viewing that supports the holistic video field we advocate.