With the evolution of apps and the demand to know about events as they happen, there is a newly released app owned by Twitter called Periscope. It allows one to stream live from anywhere in the world. Periscope came out Mar. 26, 2015. Being a fairly new app, only three people knew what Periscope was, out of the hundred surveys given out to Prince George High School students.

Periscope is used to get different types of information fast and efficiently including, entertainment, news, and sports. Josh Mathews, a sports editor for Village News, uses Periscope to cover Chesterfield County and the Tri-Cities sports. While blogger, wife, and mom, Samantha Citty, uses Periscope to talk about her blog and events happening at her church.

“In today’s media world, people are able to get information faster than ever. It only makes sense that the next step is live streaming,” Mathews said.

Once you have streamed live on Periscope the stream stays on your profile for 24 hours.

“With any type of social media you have to be careful because whatever is out there stays out there. If your are in high school I would be careful with using Periscope just speaking long term wise past high school and even past college,” Citty said.

While streaming live, viewers can comment. These comments pop up on the screen letting not only the broadcaster, but all viewers to see them. This allows a constant communication between viewers and streamers.

“It’s solid, especially for sports so you can communicate time outs. Also, if you use it on a broader spectrum, you could actually broadcast the game, play by play,” Mathews said.

“At first, it threw me off because it is not like Youtube where you get comments later. My first couple of scopes it really threw me off where someone would comment and I was like ‘oh wow that is kind of weird’…But later on it was really cool to have that interaction moment where you could say something and someone can comment and ask a questions,” Citty said.

Periscope’s motto is “explore the world through someone else’s eyes.” When on Periscope, the app has a map letting the viewer see where people are streaming from. This is great for people who want to learn about the cultures of different counties, but cannot afford to travel the world.

“I think the app achieves its motto. I think that is a really good description of Periscope, especially with being a blogger it has really been effective because with blogging you just read their words or you might follow them on Twitter, but you really don’t see them face to face like say a celebrity or a movie star that you see on traditional social media. You are put into someone else’s eyes and are looking into their own world,” Citty said.

Periscope is also a great way for teenagers to receive information about local events.

“We’ve started to use the app to create a ‘NFL Red Zone’ type of feel on Friday nights,” Mathews said.

Even though Periscope is marvelous at all these aspects, there are very similar apps including an app called YouNow. So what is the difference between the two? Periscope is more of a news based app rather than an entertainment based app like YouNow.

“[Periscope is a great app for] journalists, anyone who covers live events,” Mathews said.
Citty had a very positive view when expressing her thoughts on the future of Periscope.

“[As for the future of Periscope] I think it will gain popularity and a lot of people who are social media gurus think so as well because it does have that authenticity that you don’t necessarily get from Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You see people as they are,” Citty said.

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