Examining Streaming Cultures

Aditya Deshbandhu1

1. Abstract

The success of video streaming and user generated content has reshaped internet
practices worldwide. Go Globe, a web application design and development firm
estimates that video streaming would account for 82 percent of global internet usage in
2020 (Go Globe, 2020). Similarly, estimates of the global video streaming market
forecast its valuation at USD 70 billion by 2021 (Newswire, 2016). A practice that
intersects and coalesces with several other digital activities, streaming of user
generated content can span from videos with very little run-time (Vines, Dubsmashes
and Boomerangs) to logs that extensively document the everyday (vlogs and live
streams). The purpose of this study is to chart and critically examine the various ways
in which user generated content is streamed online and to arrive at a holistic
understanding of the process using an ethnographic/netnographic approach to study
creators of content, and by carefully examining their creative processes of ideation,
conceptualization, creation and presentation in conjunction with the ways they perform
for their audiences.

The proposed study also seeks to understand content consumption through in-depth
interviews with viewers. This would examine decisions in terms of the platforms they
choose and content they seek, beginning with search and discovery of content and the
exploration that grows into regular viewership and finally culminates in subscriptions.
The study seeks to understand the factors that drive viewer preferences, particularly
those that lead to habitual or committed consumption.

Finally, the study aims to examine the various ways by which content creators and
viewers use the various tools offered by streaming platforms like YouTube to break the
separation of producers from users, in the process providing the creators with an
engaged viewership and viewers with fluid and amenable content.

2. Introduction
Streaming of content (video, audio, mixed-media) is a key facet of the widespread global
adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The last two decades
have been testament to the new-media, digital turn in communication where the internet
and the world wide web have allowed for the digitization and convergence of
communication channels, forms and content (Lister et al. 2009). The emergence of social
media platforms (Gillespie, 2010) as a global phenomenon has allowed users of the
internet to transition from being merely consumers of content to “produsers” (Bruns,
2006; Bird, 2011) who do not just passively consume content but actively use and engage

1A proposal submitted for consideration to the United States India Educational Foundation’s Fulbright
Nehru Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2021-22

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with it to create newer content, forms and practices. With sociality and interaction
emerging as the cornerstones of the digital revolution, there has also been a widespread
acceptance of the use of internet-based platforms and services for leisure and the
emergence of practices that can be categorized under the umbrella term “digital leisure
activities” (Deshbandhu, 2020a p.4).
Streaming and consumption of content, and users’ engagement with it can be considered
an important part of digital leisure activities. The success of user generated content (UGC)
on social media platforms has allowed for newer ways to examine internet users’
practices from the analysis of platforms (Cha et al, 2007) to understanding motivations
of content creators (Daugherty et al, 2008), viewers (Hou et. al, 2019) and the agency of
users on such platforms (Van Dijck, 2009). However, there is limited work on the
processes of content creation (conceptualization, execution and post-processing) for
such platforms and the various dynamics that emerge when the content is distributed
online. This study proposes to examine the streaming process in the context of the
everyday (De Certeau, 1984; Featherstone, 1995) and trace its evolution from an activity
to a practice and ultimately something that becomes an everyday ritual (at times even
becoming a source of livelihood for the creators) (Schatzki, 1996). Such an approach
allows us to look at streamed content creation and consumption as practices, thus
enabling the examination of how they not only affect their viewers but shape
understandings, meanings, opinions and narratives (Couldry, 2004). Such an
examination of the sites of creation and dissemination as cultural activators and
aggregators (Jenkins, 2009) consequently allows for the consideration of the entire
gamut of resultant activities as transmedial participatory cultures (Jenkins and Ito, 2015).

3. Research Objectives

The study proposes to understand the dynamics of content streaming as a practice (as
conceptualized in a sociological sense by scholars like Schatzki and Wittgenstein). While
it might be simple enough to examine how streamers monetize their work, the challenge
would be to understand how streamers as individual/content creators go about the
process of developing content, that is, the strategies they use to popularize their streams,
gain viewers and subscribers as they are inherently linked to the financial viability of the
entire endeavor. This would require looking closely at the various stages of the streaming
process like creation, dissemination, consumption and the multitude of actions
enabled/performed while engaging with the streams.

Questions of interest would include: How do viewers consume streamed content? How
do they arrive at a particular stream as a regular source of content? This would involve
charting and critically examining the entire process from a chance (or directed) viewing
of a single video, to exploring other related content and then subscribing to regular
uploads. Such an examination could yield insights into how a consumer of streamed
content moves from the first encounter (often on the basis of algorithmic suggestions) to

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occasional viewing, to subscription and then habitual consumption of the content as a
practice (Schatzki, 1996; Couldry, 2004; Deshbandhu, 2016).

Based on my ongoing observation of streamed content, I understand that viewers over

time develop a community ownership of it. In several instances, viewers offer
suggestions, viewpoints and even valuable advice to streamers. The chat forums that
accompany these streams become a valuable trove of information for other viewers.
Streamers also carefully peruse the comments to answer questions and take feedback at
regular intervals, thus offering glimpses into the dynamics of engagement between
creator and viewer.

4. Proposed Methodologies

The use of an ethnographic approach to study streamers seems appropriate as it will

allow the researcher to examine the entire process from conceptualization and capturing
of content to editing, packaging and scheduling. It would also possibly allow one to
observe and identify the various traits that streamers exhibit/embrace at different points
in their performance, and provide us with an in-depth understanding of their signature
styles and approaches. It is hoped that this approach will yield unique, exciting ways to
make visible the transformation of a streamer to a performer and vice-versa.

To understand the viewers’ perspectives, use of in-depth interviews and participatory

viewing (Deshbandhu, 2016; Boellstorff, 2012) are tools that would neatly fit into an
ethnographic approach owing to its flexible and open-ended nature. Other characteristics
that make an ethnographic approach suitable include its assimilative features, rich
findings and the ability to be used in conjunction with other methods (Kozinets, 2010;
2019). A multipronged methodology steeped in ethnography or netnography (Kozinets,
2010; 2019) has the potential to offer insights into viewing habits and the decision-
making processes that content creators follow for streaming. While what each consumer
looks for is going to be drastically different it seems crucial to appreciate and analyze the
large volume of content available in realms where user generated content is not only
popular but offers a serious challenge to the established status quo.

Lastly, data from the netnographic method could be augmented by the use of in-depth
content analysis of the comments in the streams. This would offer an understanding of
levels of participation and self-ownership that viewers wield and experience, given that
streamers often to rely on advice and support from their viewers (Jenkins and Ito, 2015;
Taylor, 2012).

5. Intersections with Game Studies

Live streaming of gaming content and experiences of play have become an integral part
of the gaming experience for most gamers (Deshbandhu, 2020a). Platforms like Twitch,
YouTube Gaming have provided players with platforms and the requisite interfaces to
experiment with various styles and approaches of showcasing play. Cisco expects live
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video content to account for 17 percent of all internet traffic by 2021 (Cisco, 2020). In
game studies, research on streaming practices is at the forefront of the discipline owing
to its intersections with the emerging trends of e-sports and monetization of play.
Perspectives offered by Taylor (2012; 2018), Johnson and Woodcock (2019 a; 2019b;
2019c) and Felczak (2017) have laid the foundations for examining streamed gaming
content though, fundamental questions pertaining to fun, labor (Deshbandhu, 2020b) and
play need a deeper look by taking into account the various ways in which gaming as a
practice transforms in these contexts.

6. Adapting to the Indian Context

The Indian public’s tryst with digitality spans across a broad spectrum, where for people
from the upper echelons of society with the right infrastructure and technical knowhow
the experience and ability to access are almost on par with their first world counterparts.
However, for most of the country internet access is measured on being connected “at least
once in a month” (Kantar, 2019) and the digital divide (Selwyn, 2004) manifests from a
binary of haves and have-nots to more complex nuanced negotiations and
understandings depending on contextual realities like gender, race, caste, class and
power in a post-colonial frame. Rangaswamy and Arora (Rangaswamy & Densmore,
2013; Arora & Rangaswamy 2013; Arora & Rangaswamy 2014) in their work on
understanding the use of the internet and digital leisure practices by the economically
disadvantaged find that such engagements not only empower users but also allow for
repurposing of the internet (the researchers call it “internet in the wild”) to their
advantage. However, Arora more recently, in her book The Next Billion Users (Arora,
2019) understands the Indian youth online as not only being at a considerable
disadvantage but also vulnerable to the underlying mechanics of the world wide web
(Arora, 2019). Similarly, other work from the country also looks at how users’ offline and
online existences transcend boundaries when their practices, beliefs and concerns
manifest in cyberspace (Raman & Choudhary, 2014; Raman and Komarraju, 2017; 2018).
A transition that allows for the internet to be viewed as not merely a platform for
communication but as a possible site of being and meaning making (Poster, 1997).

This proposed study builds on these earlier understandings when it looks at how
streamers of content and their produsers/consumers reconfigure the internet’s
convergent nature in order to sift through the medium’s infinitely large content pool. As
they search for the right alignments, they make the internet their own and carve spaces
for themselves to exist, participate and perform in. The tools and methods developed for
this study can be adapted contextually to understand other dimensions and extensions of
internet usage in the Indian setting.

7. Possible Outcomes and Linkage with Host Institution

The proposed project is in line with my own continuing work on examining gaming
cultures in the Indian context, over the last seven years (2013-2020). This project allows

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me to take this further by examining user generated content and streaming cultures at
the intersections of communication, media studies, new media studies and game studies.
Such a shift would allow for my work to have wider applicability and engage in
conversation with other fields of digital media studies, outside gaming. The experiences
from the study will allow me to build the necessary tools and acquire the requisite
capabilities to examine streaming cultures emerging in India in varied contexts like post-
colonialism, the digital divide and other affordances of technology.

The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and

Journalism is at the forefront of conducting research on new media and digitality. My
association with Prof. Robert Kozinets (who has graciously invited me) should allow for
me to grow as a researcher, benefiting from his experience with using ethnography to
study the digital. The presence of stalwarts like Prof. Henry Jenkins at the institution who
has done pioneering work on Transmedia cultures, should afford a valuable exposure to
a variety of perspectives in this field. I believe that the outcome of this study and the
association could result in a wonderful learning experiences for me and help me broaden
my work and my contribution to the field of communication studies in India, both as a
teacher and a scholar.

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