From Home to Public Content: The Commercialization and Media Dynamics Driving Family Vlogging in Pakistan
Abstract
Pakistan Family vlog has emerged as a huge contributor to online media. It presents the ways families make use of technology in capturing and sharing of daily life. Families are sharing their routines, feelings, and relationships in front of many viewers since the majority of them own social media and smartphones. Although it is a rapidly developing area, minimal research has been conducted on Pakistani family vlogs, particularly how intimate family experiences are transformed into a publicly available content and how culture affects what individuals disclose. Research rarely examines the tension between the demand of the platform to achieve more views and sales on the one hand, and the highly-regulated social norms of privacy, modesty, gender roles, safety of children, and respecting a family on the other. That is why it is an important subject to study. The approach enables in-depth study of the narrative structures, visual presentation, emotional framing, and approaches to monetization and, hence, helps to understand how the cultural values and ethical issues are compromised in digital storytelling practices. The results show that the Pakistani family vloggers work in a two-system. On the one hand, they make the domestic life emotionally engaging and commercially possible to fulfil platform logics of attention, engagement, and revenue generation. Conversely, they strictly control the publicity of women men and children to keep in cheque with the cultural notions of modesty, privacy, and honour. The paper concludes that the balanced nature between the digital opportunity and cultural restraint influences family vlogging in Pakistan. It also suggests that content creators should create more distinct privacy lines, embrace responsible behavior in relation to children involvement, as well as critically consider the ethical side of commodifying intimate family moments. It further suggests that policy makers and digital platforms should come up with culturally sensitive guidelines to promote a safer and more responsible family vlogging.
Keywords: Family Vlogging, Commercialization of Domestic Life, Digital Media Dynamics, Pakistani Social Media Culture, Content Monetization
