Mediatizing Egyptian families : attitudes towards You tube household vlogs

Abstract EN

Mediatizing the old personal home videos and customizing the modern reality-based television shows, YouTube home vlogging emerged as a successful embodiment of the fading-away frontiers between the private and the public in the new media era.

Exploiting the affordability, accessibility, and portability of the video production equipment along with the participatory and interactive nature of the Web 2, several Egyptian spouses have initiated their own household video channels, revealing various aspects of what was previously known as their private life.

This study explores the Egyptian users' (viewers') perceptions of this new "home-casting" practice and their attitudes towards the content and its creators through a cultural reception analysis lens. Qualitative Thematic Analysis was employed to detect the salient themes and general valence of the users' comments on a sample of videos from two of the most popular home-vlogging channels, "Ahemd Hassan & Zeinab" and "Diaries of Hamdy & Wafaa.

" Most of the viewers showed favorable attitudes towards the content, and tones of comments were mostly supportive and defensive of the creators, indicating an accepting approach to the home-based vlogging phenomenon.

Comments featured both negative and positive themes but lacked the potential for creating a productive social debate.