<scp>eS</scp>ports and Streaming: Twitch Literacies

Gerber, Hannah R.

doi:10.1002/jaal.692

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Scholars have been studying the literacies inherent in videogaming practices for the better part of almost two decades (Abrams, 2009;Curwood, Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013;Gee, 2004, Gee & Hayes, 2010Gerber, 2008Gerber, , 2009Gerber, , 2017Gerber & Abrams, 2014;& Duncan, 2012;Lammers, 2012;Magnifico, 2012;Selfe & Hawisher, 2007;Steinkuehler, 2007). Gaming literacies are performative, nuanced, and complex, grounded in social and cultural forms of communication not limited to reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and representation, which are key modes of communication for contemporary literacies and methods of meaning making in videogaming (Gerber, 2008).…”

Section: Gaming Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because esports is touted as the next videogaming market for businesses and industry to invest in, and because industry reports drive not only research and development inside that venue but also outside of the venue-such as industry reports being used to govern school-wide adoptions of technological programs and innovationsstudying the literacies of the esports ecosystem is necessary. Although current research has examined the literacies developed around esports streaming (Gerber, 2017), esports environments as a pathway to STEM career readiness (Anderson, Tsaanan, Reitman, Lee, Wu, …& Steinkuehler, 2018), the development of teamwork strategies from analog to digital within esports environments with high school students (Gerber, Sweeney, & Pasquini, 2019) and deep learning strategies attained through esports participation (Canning & Betrus, 2017), more research is needed on the development of literacy practices that emerge within a team-based esports ecosystem, particularly a competition-oriented team unit ecosystem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The literacies of a competitive esports team

Gerber¹

2022

L1-ESLL

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This article explores a variety of literacy practices that exist with competitive esports, namely livestreaming, moderating/Mods, and VODs/VODcasting. Nearly two decades of research have indicated that videogaming provides rich experiences for developing multifarious and diverse literacy practices, but, to-date, little research examines the literacies born out of the rapidly growing and evolving videogaming market of esports. This study provides insight into the way a team functions to provide meaning-making experiences surrounding livestreaming, moderating, and VODcasting within the burgeoning esports culture. Drawing from a two-year snapshot of a larger five-year ethnographic examination of a competitive collegiate esports team, this study is guided by the theoretical perspective of distributed cognition. Data that inform this study stem from interviews, observations, and artifacts in both face-to-face and digital spaces. Findings indicate that the esports-related literacies of livestreaming, moderating, and VODs/VODcasting, transcend and overlap meaning-making experiences—in-the-moment and in reflectivity—suggesting that the role of the team is vital to the literacies found within the esports ecosystem.

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Section: Gaming Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The literacies of a competitive esports team

Gerber¹

2022

L1-ESLL

Self Cite

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“…For instance, streamers want "immediate" interaction with viewers to get valuable input on their work, such as trying out topics for a radio show or discussing ideas for an upcoming book [81]. However, Gerber [30] also cites the value of asynchronous engagement, explaining that streaming services allow gamers to "peer review" past content and provide constructive feedback to other players.…”

Section: Pacingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Design Spaces for Audience Participation in Game Live Streaming

Striner

Webb

Hammer

et al. 2021

Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Live streaming sites such as Twitch ofer new ways for remote audiences to engage with and afect gameplay. While research has considered how audiences interact with games, HCI lacks clear demarcations of the potential design spaces for audience participation. This paper introduces and validates a theme map of audience participation in game live streaming for student designers. This map is a lens that reveals relationships among themes and sub-themes of Agency, Pacing, and Community-to explore, refect upon, describe, and make sense of emerging, complex design spaces. We are the frst to articulate such a lens, and to provide a refective tool to support future research and education. To create the map, we perform a thematic analysis of design process documents of a course on audience participation for Twitch, using this analysis to visually coordinate relationships between important themes. To help student designers analyze and refect on existing experiences, we supplement the theme map with a set of mapping procedures. We validate the applicability of our map with a second set of student designers, who found the map useful as a comparative and refective tool.

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“…The live-streaming platform Twitch is central in such strife. Twitch is a vital tool in contemporary digital media literacy (Gerber, 2017), widely utilized by esports players (Li et al, 2020), and fosters communities of practice (Richard et al, 2018). It is also the predominant means of esports spectatorship (e.g., Richard et al, 2018;Taylor, 2020); and its streams produce valuable data against which collegiate players measure and analyze their performances (Taylor, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recasting Collegiate Esports: Independence and Interdependence of University Twitch Streamers

Foxman

Coté

Can

et al. 2021

SPIR

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Few online communities exhibit the tensions between independence and interdependence better than collegiate esports. Twitch, the primary platform for live streaming esports, is central in such strife. The platform is a vital tool for colleges and athletes to forward brand, community, and entrepreneurship, while simultaneously its unbridled use indicates the need for administration and institutional interventions by universities. As such the proposed study aims to illuminate how collegiate esports clubs, including players, administrators, and program directors, use Twitch to promote independence and interdependence with esports publishers, players, fans, and college culture. Preliminary findings from 19 interviews with athletes and directors suggest some commonalities, particularly in optimism about the platform as a tool for entree into the industry. However, beyond this, directors and athletes diverged when it came to how Twitch should be employed, the labor required to successfully navigate the program, and concerns over toxic behavior associated with competitive gaming that manifested during live play. Finally, grey areas colored the interdependency between Twitch and the university. Monetization and use of streams were not clearly articulated, along with undefined policies on how to act professionally and represent universities on the platform. Ultimately, these early findings point to the lack of knowledge and flexibility of institutions like universities as they increasingly rely on platforms to foster online and offline communities.

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eSports and Streaming: Twitch Literacies

Abstract: This forum highlights and evaluates apps, computer programs, and websites that teachers, students, and other interested parties can use to explore, research, and engage in content learning and literacy practices.

Cited by 20 publications

References 2 publications

The literacies of a competitive esports team

The literacies of a competitive esports team

Mapping Design Spaces for Audience Participation in Game Live Streaming

Recasting Collegiate Esports: Independence and Interdependence of University Twitch Streamers

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