Panel Statement
Although livestreaming has been technically possible for years, the recent surge in popularity was primarily driven by the broadcasting of videogames. In the past two years, gamingcentric livestreaming platforms such as Twitch.tv (US based) and Douyu.tv (China based) took off as not merely novel media platforms but a ubiquitous everyday entertainment for millions among other media platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. Livestreaming converges liveness (live broadcasting) and participatory culture (social interactions) on an unprecedented level. This panel considers firstly, how livestreaming problematizes the concepts of liveness in contemporary contexts of broadcasting over wired and wireless internets compared to the televisual age. And secondly, the panel asks how livestreaming induces various forms of participatory culture which encourages the platform to be a space both of play and productive activities.
Introduction
Although livestreaming has been “technically within the realm of the possible” for years, the recent surge in popularity was primarily driven by the broadcasting of videogames. In the past two years, gaming-centric live streaming platforms such as Twitch.tv (US based) and Douyu.tv (China based) took off as not merely novel media platforms but a ubiquitous everyday entertainment for millions among other media platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. Livestreaming converges liveness (live broadcasting) and participatory culture (social interactions) on an unprecedented level. Firstly, live streaming problematizes the concepts of liveness in contemporary contexts of broadcasting over wired and wireless internets compared to the televisual age; secondly, livestreaming induces various forms of participatory culture which encourages the platform to be a space both of play and productive activities. As a panel, we will contribute four different perspectives on the subject of livestreaming in both theory and practice. In contrast to the rhetoric surrounding both the availability and the simplicity of use of live streaming technologies, game broadcasters (from professional amateurs to irregular live streamers) reveal the personal and significant efforts involved in maintaining a regular channel as hidden labour curtained off from their viewable performance. Here we present four cases which reveal and discuss the labour involved in negotiating livestreams, and how particular constructions of labour intersect with the concepts of both liveness and participatory culture within spaces of networked play/production. Firstly, liveness, in particular impromptu live performances, is often valued as a superior form that resists the contrivances of conventional television. Contemporary live streaming platforms complicate this sentiment as the very personal/social aspects of human interactions are proactively commoditized. Secondly, Henry Jenkins, discussing the relationship of participatory culture in networked society, positions users as having more producer and consumer control over their media, and with that “…greater roles to play, in the key decision making institutions of their time”. The collective studies presented here contribute to this constructive position, as well as deeply complicate how participatory cultures are at work within cultures of games, with particular attention to the notion of “shared well-being” of players entangled in an economy of eyeballs and deeply entrenched in laddish media sports cultures.
- Emma Witkowski, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
- Daniel Recktenwald. Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, SAR China
- James Manning, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia j
- Zhang ‘Dino’ Ge, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Full text (PDF) p. 429-431