433/2021 MARIA TÖRHÖNEN The Professionalization of Play Examining the convergence of play and labour in online video content creation Tampere University Dissertations 444 Tampere University Dissertations 444 MARIA TÖRHÖNEN The Professionalization of Play Examining the convergence of play and labour in online video content creation ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences of Tampere University, for public discussion in the lecture room B1100 of the Pinni B-building, Pinni B, Kanslerinrinne 1, 33014 Tampere, on 9 August 2021, at 12 o’clock. ACADEMIC DISSERTATION Tampere University, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences Finland Responsible Professor Juho Hamari supervisor Tampere University and Custos Finland Pre-examiners Dr Mark R. Johnson Associate professor University of Sydney Donghee Yvette Wohn Australia New Jersey Institute of Technology USA Opponent Professor Tanja Sihvonen University of Vaasa Finland The originality of this thesis has been checked using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. Copyright ©2021 author Cover design: Roihu Inc. ISBN 978-952-03-2035-5 (print) ISBN 978-952-03-2036-2 (pdf) ISSN 2489-9860 (print) ISSN 2490-0028 (pdf) http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-2036-2 PunaMusta Oy – Yliopistopaino Joensuu 2021 Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my mother and daughter. The two strong women who supported and inspired me throughout this process. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Someone once told me I should not go into research, but due to my curiosity and stubbornness, I refused to listen and here we are. I have found this process to be incredibly fulfilling and challenging, but something I would never have completed without the support of my peers and loved ones. My greatest gratitude goes out to my supervisor Juho Hamari, who I am also happy to call my colleague. While he has given me all the support a supervisor could give, he has also presented me with incredible opportunities during this process and never treated me as a student, but rather as his equal, and always expecting me to perform to that standard which at times has been nearly impossible. However, this work would not be finished without his encouragement and supervision. A great big thank you also goes to the other co-authors of the included publications as well as the funding organisations Media-alan Tutkimussäätiö and Business Finland for making this work possible. I would also like to thank the pre-examiners Mark Johnson and Donghee Yvette Wohn, the two experts in this area of research, whose opinions I hold in great regard and whose reports I awaited with so much anxiety. Thank you for your kind and constructive words. Also, my, greatest gratitude goes out to Tanja Sihvonen, for agreeing to act as my opponent. During this process I have been extremely lucky to have a very supportive group of colleagues and friends, who have all inspired me and given me words of wisdom and encouragement. My colleagues at the Gamification Group, I hope you all know how much I respect and admire you and your endless expertise. Those who must be mentioned in particular are; Mila, Joe and Max, all of whom have endured this process with me and supported me during those times when I nearly gave up. And all my closest friends, thank you for always being there for me. Finally, absolutely none of this would have been done without the support of my loving family. The incredible expectations and belief of my mother, which I know is the purest form of love. The support from my father, my brothers, and their families. And the endless love and care from my wonderful husband, my curious daughter (who now wants to be a researcher too), and from the one still to come, you three are my world. v vi ABSTRACT The way in which we approach work and our free time has changed rapidly during the last few decades. The increasing digitalization of our everyday lives and routines, and the development of innovative digital platforms and solutions, has made it possible for us to merge our work and leisure and even turn our leisure into work. This merger of leisure and work can be seen in the emergence of concepts and ideas such as online peer-to-peer trading and resource sharing on digital platforms, but it can also be examined in the way we immerse ourselves into social media formats and casually turn our social media consumption into media production through simple interactions such as posting, sharing media content, and commenting. The modern consumer of digital and social media has rapidly turned into a prosumer of content, a consumer who also produces, and through sophisticated, platform developed incentive programs and changes in our digital economy, these activities are also taking more professionalised forms. This dissertation will examine the increasing convergence of our labour and leisure lives through the activities of video content creators, in whom this new marriage of work and, playful leisure is representatively present. The dissertation will specifically focus on the behaviours, motivations, and practices of private individuals as video content creators and their effect on the professionalization of these activities, through five studies. The dissertation will utilize theoretical and conceptual understanding from media studies, social psychology, and game research and is primarily based on quantitative data and both on inductive and deductive research approaches. The first study of the dissertation examines the existing literature on the topic of professionalised and commercialized video content creation, which provides an insight into the topic. The second and third studies of the dissertation aim to elucidate the behaviours and perceptions of the content creators by examining the ways in which the perceptions of the activity as either leisure or labour affects the activity and its outcomes, and the actor’s motivations to generate video content online. The fourth and fifth studies examine the practices of video content creators by examining the formulation of popularity in video content creation and the practices of the most popular video content creators on the video sharing platform, Twitch. vii The findings of the dissertation reveal various professionalised aspects through the examination of the behaviours, motivations, and practices of video content creators, and also underline the significance of the recreational nature of the activity. The findings of study two discovered that work-oriented video content creators had the highest activity levels and outcomes (e.g., income) from the activity, of the examined groups (work-oriented, play-oriented and playbour-oriented), while the play-oriented content creators were also found to gain good outcomes from their activities with the least amount of effort and the longest tenure from the activity. Similarly to study two, the findings of study three indicated that extrinsic motivations to create video content, such as income and career development, were associated with weekly activity levels of a content creator, while continued engagement with the activity was seen to be related to intrinsic motivations such as enjoyment, and social interaction. The findings of studies four and five also discovered strategic practices and tools that can be associated with the more professionalised aspects of video content creation, including a new category of tools used purely for revenue generating purposes (such as donation and subscription links and pop-ups). The findings also emphasized more intrinsically significant aspects of the activity, such as the importance of social interaction and the relatability of the online persona. Based on these findings, it could be argued that specific behaviours, motivations and practices of video content creators are associated with the professionalised aspects of the activity, but the intrinsic nature of the activity seems to remain as a significant contributor in the continued engagement in the activity as well as an instrument for increased authenticity and relatedness for video content creators. viii TIIVISTELMÄ Ihmisten työ- ja vapaa-aika ovat muuttuneet merkittävästi viime vuosikymmenten aikana. Digitalisaation, kehittyneiden digitaalisten ratkaisujen ja alustojen yleistyminen ja arkipäiväistyminen on mahdollistanut vapaa-ajan ja työn yhdistämisen – ja jopa vapaa-ajan muuttumisen työksi. Työn ja huvin yhdistyminen näkyy mm. uusien palvelumallien ja ideoiden, kuten digitaalisten vaihtotalouspalveluiden, kehittymisenä, mutta myös ihmisten tapana uppoutua sosiaalisen median kanaviin. Niissä sisällön kuluttamisesta on tullut vaivattomasti myös sisällön tuotantoa yksinkertaisten ja jopa leikillisten toimintojen, esimerkiksi tykkäämisen, sisällön jakamisen ja kommentoinnin, kautta. Modernista, digitaalisen ja sosiaalisen median kuluttajasta on kehittynyt ns. tuluttaja, eli kuluttaja, joka myös tuottaa digitaalista sisältöä. Digitaalisten alustojen kehittymisen myötä vapaa-ajan mediakäyttäytyminen on muovautunut ammatillisemmaksi. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan työn ja huvin yhdistymistä, etenkin videosisällön tuottajien – kuten yksityisten striimaajien ja tubettajien - toiminnassa. Väitöskirja tarkastelee viiden erillisen julkaisun kautta videosisällön tuottajien käyttäytymistä, motivaatioita ja käytäntöjä sekä niiden vaikutusta vapaa-ajan toiminnan ammatillistumiseen. Väitöskirjassa hyödynnetään aiempaa konseptuaalista ja teoreettista ymmärrystä mm. mediatutkimuksesta, pelitutkimuksesta