Social research on Twitch: An experimental analysis of six Spanish-speaking streamers
- Bárbara Prummer Arabaolaza Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0378-3343
- Iru Díaz-García Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9658-8040
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- Aileen Chales-Aoun Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5694-8309
- María Muñoz-Carballo Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8076-9580
- Gonzalo Carniglia-González Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4045-5312
Abstract
This article presents a diachronic investigation focused on analyzing the vernacular forms of interaction of digital communities on Twitch, through the chats of the channels of six Spanish-speaking streamers with the highest number of subscribers —illojuan, ibai, auronplay, cristinini, staryuuki and rivers_gg—. The research has followed a logic of mixed design, using the techniques of digital ethnography and web scraping. Specifically, a chat-scrapping of six streamer communities on Twitch has been carried out and a database has been created with a total of 1,650,309 messages. It is concluded that affectivity is key in the streamer-chatter/viewer relationship and is strongly mediated by the monetization of the platform. For its part, it is possible to deny the "breaking of the fourth wall", since the degree of interactivity of the chat is subject to functional limits. Regarding gender, female streamers manage to build chat environments with twice the interactivity between users than their male colleagues. Finally, it is concluded that the chat is not designed to be read, being only intelligible the echo of a massive collective conversation, spontaneously coordinated by the users united by weak links that constitute a "hive chat".
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