What does broadcasting mean?
Broadcasting is the act of transmitting audio or video content to a wide, dispersed audience, most commonly through radio and television. The word also denotes the media industry built around this activity, encompassing networks, stations, producers, and regulators. By extension, broadcasting is used figuratively for any wide dissemination of information — a person might be said to be 'broadcasting their plans' when telling everyone about them. The term derives from an older agricultural sense of 'broadcast', meaning to scatter seed broadly by hand across a field rather than in rows; when radio emerged in the early twentieth century, the metaphor of casting messages far and wide proved irresistible. Today broadcasting sits alongside newer modes of distribution such as streaming and podcasting, though it remains central to how societies share news, entertainment, and public announcements with mass audiences.
The transmission of radio or television programs to a mass audience, or the industry engaged in such transmission.
"Regulators imposed new rules on broadcasting after the scandal."
Typically uncountable; takes singular verb agreement even though it describes a mass activity.
Figuratively, the indiscriminate or wide dissemination of information or news.
"He was criticized for the public broadcasting of his colleague's private troubles."
Often carries a negative connotation of oversharing.
Broadcasting is almost always used as an uncountable noun; a plural form is essentially never needed in ordinary usage.
"The archive preserves decades of the network's broadcasting."
Before it meant anything to do with radio, 'broadcasting' was a farming term — literally throwing seed far and wide across a field by hand.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of broadcasting
Broadcasting derives from 'broadcast', an English compound of 'broad' and 'cast' that originally described the sowing of seed by scattering it widely by hand, a practice attested in agriculture for centuries. When wireless radio transmission developed in the early twentieth century, the word was adopted metaphorically to describe sending signals out in all directions to anyone within range, much as seed was flung across a field. The gerund form 'broadcasting' followed naturally as the new medium became an industry. It shares its roots with other broad- and cast-derived words such as 'forecast' and 'overcast'.
Related word forms
How broadcasting is actually used
Broadcasting is an uncountable noun in standard usage and is generally neutral in register, appearing freely in both formal journalism and casual conversation. In figurative use it often carries a slightly critical connotation, as when someone is accused of 'broadcasting' private matters too widely.
Easily confused with broadcasting
Podcasting refers specifically to distributing downloadable audio episodes over the internet, whereas broadcasting traditionally means transmitting programs simultaneously to a mass audience over radio waves, television, or cable.