Geert Lovink (Draft, June 4, 2002)
Streaming media have the technical possibility to question the iron necessity of the return of the 'one to many' broadcasting models. Interactivity has the possibility to fragment the 'mass' audiences into a dispersed group of users. The technical peer–to–peer approach (as opposed to the client–server model) may be obvious for some but its consequences are far reaching. In contrast to broadcasting we may define streaming media as channels that make audio and visual material available on the Internet. ... Alternative streaming ... stresses the importance of networked webcasting and, most notably, does not retransmit existing radio signals. They provide the Net with new, yet unknown content and forms of subjectivity. Becoming minor, in this context can be described as a strategy of "turning major technologies into minor machines." Against the mass media a heterogeneous network of networks could flourish. The listener as producer submerges into an immersive space, designer a unique, personal mix of up and downstream data.