Article:
Feeling for an Audience. The Gendered Emotional Labor of Video Game Live Streaming

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dc.creatorRuberg, Bonnie
dc.creatorCullen, Amanda L. L.
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-01T11:31:07Z
dc.date.available2024-03-01T11:31:07Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractThe practice of live streaming video games is becoming increasingly popular worldwide (Taylor 2018). Live streaming represents more than entertainment; it is expanding the practice of turning play into work. Though it is commonly misconstrued as “just playing video games,” live streaming requires a great deal of behind-the-scenes labor, especially for women, who often face additional challenges as profes- sionals within video game culture (AnyKey 2015). In this article, we shed light on one important aspect of the gendered work of video game live streaming: emotional labor. To do so, we present observations and insights drawn from our analysis of instructional videos created by women live streamers and posted to YouTube. These videos focus on “tips and tricks” for how aspiring streamers can become successful on Twitch. Building from these videos, we articulate the various forms that emotional labor takes for video game live streamers and the gen- dered implications of this labor. Within these videos, we identify key recurring topics, such as how streamers work to cultivate feelings in viewers, perform feelings, manage their own feelings, and use feelings to build personal brands and communities for their streams. Drawing from existing work on video games and labor, we move this scholarly conversation in important new directions by highlighting the role of emotional labor as a key facet of video game live streaming and insist- ing on the importance of attending to how the intersection of play and work is tied to identity.en
dc.identifier.doi10.14361/dc s-2019-0206
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/21856
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.14361/dcs-2019-0206/html
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/23181
dc.languageeng
dc.publishertranscript
dc.publisher.placeBielefeld
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2364-2114
dc.relation.ispartofseriesDigital Culture & Society
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 Generic
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subjectTwitchen
dc.subjectYouTubeen
dc.subjectgameplay streamingen
dc.subjectgenderen
dc.subjectaffective labouren
dc.subject.ddcddc:300
dc.subject.ddcddc:700
dc.titleFeeling for an Audience. The Gendered Emotional Labor of Video Game Live Streamingen
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dspace.entity.typeArticle
local.coverpage2024-03-02T02:30:48
local.source.epage102
local.source.issue2
local.source.issueTitleThe Boundaries of Play
local.source.spage85
local.source.volume5

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