
Twitch
Mark R. Johnson(Author)
Polity Press
1st Edition
Published on 28. June 2024
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-5095-5858-2 (ISBN)
Description
Twitch is the leading live streaming platform in most of the world and an integral part of contemporary digital gaming. Millions of people broadcast their digital game play (as well as other activities) to over a hundred million people who regularly visit the site.
In this accessible book, Mark R. Johnson offers both a synthesis of existing Twitch research and a new way to understand Twitch as a public forum for gaming. Drawing on ideas of the ancient Greek ""agora"" or public forum, Johnson demonstrates how Twitch has become the key location for digital game players looking to understand what is contemporary, relevant, and important in modern gaming culture. He argues that Twitch has constructed a very particular kind of public forum for gaming, an understanding which emerges from analysing the platform through its technological infrastructure, its streamers and viewers, its broadcast content, and its tightly knit communities. While this forum helps shape gaming culture, it also exhibits many of gaming's existing problems with harassment and cultural exclusivity. Despite being the essential public space for contemporary gaming, Johnson shows how Twitch is far more complex than it first appears.
This book is essential reading for students and scholars of games and streaming studies, media studies, and anyone with an interest in the rapidly changing nature of online communication.
In this accessible book, Mark R. Johnson offers both a synthesis of existing Twitch research and a new way to understand Twitch as a public forum for gaming. Drawing on ideas of the ancient Greek ""agora"" or public forum, Johnson demonstrates how Twitch has become the key location for digital game players looking to understand what is contemporary, relevant, and important in modern gaming culture. He argues that Twitch has constructed a very particular kind of public forum for gaming, an understanding which emerges from analysing the platform through its technological infrastructure, its streamers and viewers, its broadcast content, and its tightly knit communities. While this forum helps shape gaming culture, it also exhibits many of gaming's existing problems with harassment and cultural exclusivity. Despite being the essential public space for contemporary gaming, Johnson shows how Twitch is far more complex than it first appears.
This book is essential reading for students and scholars of games and streaming studies, media studies, and anyone with an interest in the rapidly changing nature of online communication.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-5858-2 (9781509558582)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Mark R. Johnson is Lecturer in Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney.
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Platform
Chapter 2: Twitch Users
Chapter 3: Twitch Content
Chapter 4: Community and Culture
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Platform
Chapter 2: Twitch Users
Chapter 3: Twitch Content
Chapter 4: Community and Culture
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

