University of Oklahoma Graduate College An
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF TWITCH STREAMERS: NEGOTIATING PROFESSIONALISM IN NEW MEDIA CONTENT CREATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By CHRISTOPHER M. BINGHAM Norman, Oklahoma 2017 AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF TWITCH STREAMERS: NEGOTIATING PROFESSIONALISM IN NEW MEDIA CONTENT CREATION A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION BY _______________________________ Dr. Eric Kramer, Chair _______________________________ Dr. Ralph Beliveau _______________________________ Dr. Ioana Cionea _______________________________ Dr. Lindsey Meeks _______________________________ Dr. Sean O’Neill Copyright by CHRISTOPHER M. BINGHAM 2017 All Rights Reserved. Dedication For Gram and JJ Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to acknowledge for their help and support in finishing my educational journey. I certainly could not have completed this research without the greater Twitch community and its welcoming and open atmosphere. More than anyone else I would like to thank the professional streamers who took time out of their schedules to be interviewed for this dissertation, specifically Trainsy, FuturemanGaming, Wyvern_Slayr, Smokaloke, MrLlamaSC, BouseFeenux, Mogee, Spooleo, HeavensLast. and SnarfyBobo. I sincerely appreciate your time, and am eternally envious of your enthusiasm and energy. Furthermore I would like to acknowledge Ezekiel_III, whose channel demonstrated for me the importance of this type of research to semiotic theory, as well as CohhCarnage and ItmeJP, whose show Dropped Frames, allowed further insight into the social milieu of professional Twitch streaming. I thank Drew Harry, PhD, Twitch’s Director of Science for responding to my enquiries. Finally, I thank all the streamers and fans who attended TwitchCon in 2015 and 2016, for the wonderful experience.
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