Video Content On The Web (Derby College Student Article)

When the internet first became available to the general public, there were certain limitations to what could be accessed. With the growing epidemic of people becoming more dependant on the internet to satisfy their uses and gratifications, it means that over the years; the overall appearance and layout of web pages have vastly developed to cater to their masses of audiences. When the internet was first available in the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s, the web pages were only text-based and very basic, whereas nowadays, the majority of websites utilize video content in order to appeal to their target audiences. More and more radio and television broadcasting are posting online feeds of their programming. Youtube, founded February 2005, is the largest video streaming website; as with many websites, it utilizes a flash player to stream and distribute video footage.

With the recent increase in video content, it means that web users are staying on a website longer than a text-based website which is slowly becoming less popular as they have less to offer to the public. Video streaming websites are more successful in the retention of web users, this is because they supply instant information with less effort from the browser; it also creates a more interesting web page.

Institutions are producing visually stimulating videos to target their audience; they are distributing them in banners alongside web pages which they have found their target audience would be most likely to browse. By doing this, it means that the institution has a higher success rate of enticing their audience.

Social networking websites such as Bebo use video presenters on their homepage to entice browsers to continue browsing through the website. Depending on the genre of the website and their target audience, the presenters will be chosen to suit the remit of the website. For example, a website such as Bebo, would be more likely to have a young and fresh-faced presenter who appears to be quite amicable and laid-back; on the other hand, a website for stock exchange would have a video presenter who might be quite stern looking and dressed with a suit and tie. The presenter would more than likely be male; this is because men are typically the business-people.