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Inclusion and exclusion in the digital economy: disability and mental health as a live streamer on Twitch.tv
Information, Communication & Society
Abstract
In this paper I explore economic and inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities and mental health issues afforded by ‘live streaming’ ‒ the live broadcast of one’s activities over the internet to a globally dispersed audience. In both 2016 and 2017, the leading live streaming platform Twitch.tv broadcast over 500,000 years of video, which were produced by over two million regular broadcasters (‘streamers’), and consumed by an audience of several hundred million viewers. Streamers can profit, up to and including a full-time living ‘wage’ for those at the highest levels. Numerous successful streamers with chronic health issues have discussed the personal and professional benefits streaming brings them. Utilising data from a research project with 100 interviews, alongside approximately 500 hours of ethnographic observation, this paper examines the experiences of live streaming for broadcasters with disabilities, mental health issues, or physical health issues. Firstly, I explore the positive elements of streaming for these broadcasters, focusing on the many conditions represented in this demographic, and the benefits streaming gives for inclusion and community. Secondly, I consider the negative experiences of these streamers, focused on entanglements of health and technology that make their streaming lives potentially more challenging than their colleagues. Thirdly, I focus on the economic opportunities, and the potential for entrepreneurial activity, the platform affords. I conclude the analysis by exploring how these aspects make live streaming a potentially exemplary emancipatory and entrepreneurial space for these individuals, but not one without challenges.
... Researchers have also examined the harms of microaggressions and overt hate and found that these experiences have significant impact on disabled people, including increased emotional distress, anxiety posting online, and self-censorship overtime [42,43,52,79]. Although viewing hate can be harmful, previous research indicates that some users, particularly content creators, may tolerate certain forms of hate [42,54,79,89]. ...
Disabled people on social media often experience ableist hate and microaggressions. Prior work has shown that platform moderation often fails to remove ableist hate leaving disabled users exposed to harmful content. This paper examines how personalized moderation can safeguard users from viewing ableist comments. During interviews and focus groups with 23 disabled social media users, we presented design probes to elicit perceptions on configuring their filters of ableist speech (e.g. intensity of ableism and types of ableism) and customizing the presentation of the ableist speech to mitigate the harm (e.g. AI rephrasing the comment and content warnings). We found that participants preferred configuring their filters through types of ableist speech and favored content warnings. We surface participants distrust in AI-based moderation, skepticism in AI's accuracy, and varied tolerances in viewing ableist hate. Finally we share design recommendations to support users' agency, mitigate harm from hate, and promote safety.
... In emerging markets, the rise of localized streaming services and mobile-based gaming content has increased accessibility, though monetization challenges persist due to lower average revenue per user (ARPU). Despite its growth potential, the esports ecosystem in emerging economies faces several structural and economic challenges that hinder its expansion (Johnson, 2019;Hanz, 2020). A major challenge is the lack of reliable internet infrastructure in some regions, leading to high latency and poor connectivity for competitive gaming. ...
The global esports industry has witnessed exponential growth, yet its expansion in emerging economies remains constrained by infrastructure limitations, regulatory uncertainty, and limited investment. This paper proposes a Strategic Leadership Framework for fostering sustainable esports markets in these economies. By integrating visionary leadership, stakeholder engagement, infrastructure development, talent cultivation, regulatory frameworks, and sustainable business models, this framework aims to address key challenges and unlock esports' economic potential. This explores the role of strategic leadership in guiding esports development, drawing on established leadership theories and their applicability to emerging industries. It highlights the esports ecosystem in developing regions, analyzing critical stakeholders such as players, teams, sponsors, governments, and media. Through case studies of successful esports markets, the paper identifies best practices that can be adapted to local contexts. Key strategic initiatives include improving digital infrastructure, fostering public-private partnerships, standardizing regulations, and implementing structured talent pipelines. Despite the promising opportunities esports presents such as job creation, technological innovation, and youth engagement-significant barriers remain, including funding constraints, digital access disparities, and cultural perceptions of gaming. This framework provides a structured approach to overcoming these challenges, offering practical recommendations for policymakers, investors, and industry leaders. As esports continues to gain mainstream recognition, emerging economies have a unique opportunity to position themselves as competitive players in the global industry. By implementing a strategic leadership-driven approach, they can foster inclusive, scalable, and economically viable esports ecosystems. This research contributes to the growing discourse on esports development, emphasizing the need for proactive leadership and strategic planning to unlock its full potential in emerging markets.
... Livestreaming has become a dominant form of social media entertainment worldwide, creating employment opportunities across various sectors [30,38], including for individuals with disabilities [3,22,24,35]. In e-commerce livestreaming, which relies heavily on verbal communication and real-time interaction [44], Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) livestreamers face unique challenges [9]. ...
Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) individuals are increasingly participating as livestreamers in China's e-commerce livestreaming industry but face obstacles that limit the scope and diversity of their audience. Our paper examines these challenges and explores a potential solution for connecting the hearing audience to sign language (SL) livestreaming teams with DHH members in e-commerce livestreaming. We interviewed four SL livestreaming team members and 15 hearing audience members to identify information and emotional communication challenges that discourage the hearing audience from continuing to watch SL livestreaming. Based on these findings, we developed a virtual co-presenter demo, which targets SL livestreaming teams with DHH members as users, through a design workshop with six designers, incorporating voice broadcasting with animations. Follow-up evaluations with previous participants provided positive feedback on the virtual co-presenter's potential to address these challenges. We summarize design suggestions on its functionality and interaction design for further refinement to assist SL livestreaming teams with DHH members in reaching a broader hearing audience.
... The potential bias systematically favoring better aesthetics may result in consistently low engagement for certain genres of vlogs. For instance, one vlogger stopped posting videos due to disappointment with little engagement [33], potentially exacerbating their emotional distress. This suggests that YouTube dynamics may further marginalize already vulnerable populations. ...
Individuals with severe mental illnesses (SMI), particularly schizophrenia, experience complex and intense emotions frequently. They increasingly turn to vlogging as an authentic medium for emotional disclosure and online support-seeking. While previous research has primarily focused on text-based disclosure, little is known about how people construct narratives around emotions and emotional experiences through video blogs. Our study analyzed 401 YouTube videos created by schizophrenia vloggers, revealing that vloggers disclosed their fear, sadness, and joy through verbal narration by explicit expressions or storytelling. Visually, they employed various framing styles, including Anonymous, Talk-to-Camera, and In-the-Moment approaches, along with diverse visual narration techniques. Notably, we uncovered a concerning 'visual appeal disparity' in audience engagement, with visually appealing videos receiving significantly more views, likes, and comments. This study discusses the role of video-sharing platforms in emotional expression and offers design implications for fostering online care-seeking for emotionally vulnerable populations.
... In emerging markets, the rise of localized streaming services and mobile-based gaming content has increased accessibility, though monetization challenges persist due to lower average revenue per user (ARPU). Despite its growth potential, the esports ecosystem in emerging economies faces several structural and economic challenges that hinder its expansion (Johnson, 2019;Hanz, 2020). A major challenge is the lack of reliable internet infrastructure in some regions, leading to high latency and poor connectivity for competitive gaming. ...
The global esports industry has witnessed exponential growth, yet its expansion in emerging economies remains constrained by infrastructure limitations, regulatory uncertainty, and limited investment. This paper proposes a Strategic Leadership Framework for fostering sustainable esports markets in these economies. By integrating visionary leadership, stakeholder engagement, infrastructure development, talent cultivation, regulatory frameworks, and sustainable business models, this framework aims to address key challenges and unlock esports’ economic potential. This explores the role of strategic leadership in guiding esports development, drawing on established leadership theories and their applicability to emerging industries. It highlights the esports ecosystem in developing regions, analyzing critical stakeholders such as players, teams, sponsors, governments, and media. Through case studies of successful esports markets, the paper identifies best practices that can be adapted to local contexts. Key strategic initiatives include improving digital infrastructure, fostering public-private partnerships, standardizing regulations, and implementing structured talent pipelines. Despite the promising opportunities esports presents such as job creation, technological innovation, and youth engagement—significant barriers remain, including funding constraints, digital access disparities, and cultural perceptions of gaming. This framework provides a structured approach to overcoming these challenges, offering practical recommendations for policymakers, investors, and industry leaders. As esports continues to gain mainstream recognition, emerging economies have a unique opportunity to position themselves as competitive players in the global industry. By implementing a strategic leadership-driven approach, they can foster inclusive, scalable, and economically viable esports ecosystems. This research contributes to the growing discourse on esports development, emphasizing the need for proactive leadership and strategic planning to unlock its full potential in emerging markets.
Kemajuan yang signifikan telah dilakukan dalam mempelajari kewirausahaan pada ekonomi digital selama sepuluh tahun terakhir. Penelitian tentang kewirausahaan pada ekonomi digital sangat penting karena mengubah semua aspek kehidupan manusia, termasuk model bisnis dan tren kewirausahaan. Penelitian tentang kewirausahaan pada ekonomi digital telah dilakukan pada beragam fokus dan sudut pandang. Namun, sedikit penelitian yang telah melakukan analisis bibliografi dengan analisis bibliometrik. Analisis jejaring bibliometrik dan sosial ini menggunakan 180 artikel kewirausahaan pada penelitian ekonomi digital yang diterbitkan makalah dari tahun 2013 hingga November 2022 dari database Scopus. Analisis dan visualisasi data dilakukan dengan menggunakan alat VOS Viewer dan paket bibliometrik dalam R. Penelitian ini menggunakan bibliometric coupling dan co-occurrence network untuk menemukan area studi yang sesuai dengan tren dan tema pada saat ini dan masa depan. Studi tentang kewirausahaan pada ekonomi digital telah tumbuh 51,48% per tahun sejak 2013. Selain itu, berdasarkan topik, publikasi, penulis, dan kata kunci yang paling sering dikutip, hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa penelitian di masa depan harus berkonsentrasi pada pendidikan ekonomi digital untuk mempromosikan kewirausahaan. Kontribusi artikel ini dapat memandu memahami penelitian tentang kewirausahaan pada ekonomi digital melalui analisis bibliometrik, sehingga dapat memajukan teori dan penerapan kewirausahaan pada ekonomi digital.
The purpose of this paper is to build an analysis model of digital economy collaborative governance by using backpropagation (BP) algorithm driven by big data, to evaluate the economic development level of the city, and to provide suggestions for the future development of the city. This paper aims at the economic development level of eight urban areas in S city and compares the economic development level of each urban area from 13 basic indicators in four aspects: economic benefit, innovative development, people’s life, and sustainable development. This paper constructs a three-layer BP neural network model, scores the economic development level of each urban area, and puts forward a reasonable plan for the future urban construction of S city according to the comprehensive score. The results show that this research model has high accuracy in evaluating the economic development level of each urban area, which is consistent with the actual development situation. Therefore, the analytical model established in this paper utilizes the BP algorithm to precisely assess the urban economic development level. It offers optimized strategies for collaborative governance in the context of a big data-driven urban digital economy. This effective approach aims to achieve the collaborative governance objectives for urban digital economies, serving as an experimental reference for similar research in other cities.
Esports-relevant expertise extends beyond gameplay to encompass the cultivation of knowledge, skills, networks, and resources that support competitive success. Using a grounded theory approach and insights from 33 interviews with esports players in an emerging ecosystem, this study develops a sociocultural model that identifies four interrelated dimensions shaping expertise development, while paying special attention
to the challenges players face. Cultures represent the layered structures of meanings, values, and norms that influence practices within and around esports. Social relations highlight families, schools, peers, and other social actors that support and/or inhibit gaming pursuits. Minds address social-psychological dispositions, mindsets, and the interpersonal dynamics that impact expertise. Finally, resources foreground how finances, space, time, and emotions enable or constrain players’ growth. Together, these dimensions reveal the multifaceted and interconnected ecology surrounding esports-relevant expertise development. The article highlights the value of an inductive approach for generating new and novel insights, and offers a valuable framework for understanding the sociocultural factors influencing esports-relevant expertise.
This paper explores the lives and careers of video game live broadcasters, especially those who gain their primary real-world income through this practice. We introduce the dominant market leader – the platform Twitch.tv – and outline its immensely rapid growth and the communities of millions of broadcasters, and tens of millions of viewers, it now boasts. Drawing on original interview data with professional and aspiring-professional game broadcasters (‘streamers’), we examine the pasts, presents, and anticipated futures of streamers: how professional streamers began streaming, the everyday labour practices of streaming, and their concerns and hopes about the future of their chosen career. Through these examinations we explore the sociotechnical entanglements – digital intimacy, celebrity, content creation, and video games – that exemplify this new media form. Live streaming is an online practice expanding in both production and consumption at immense speed, and Twitch and its streamers appear to be at the forefront of that revolution.
As ever more policy-makers, governments and organisations turn to the gig economy and digital labour as an economic development strategy to bring jobs to places that need them, it becomes important to understand better how this might influence the livelihoods of workers. Drawing on a multi-year study with digital workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-east Asia, this article highlights four key concerns for workers: bargaining power, economic inclusion, intermediated value chains, and upgrading. The article shows that although there are important and tangible benefits for a range of workers, there are also a range of risks and costs that unduly affect the livelihoods of digital workers. Building on those concerns, it then concludes with a reflection on four broad strategies – certification schemes, organising digital workers, regulatory strategies and democratic control of online labour platforms – that could be employed to improve conditions and livelihoods for digital workers.
Online communication channels, especially social web platforms, are rapidly replacing traditional ones. Online platforms allow users to overcome physical barriers, enabling worldwide participation. However, the power of online communication bears an important negative consequence --- we are exposed to too much information to process. Too many participants, for example, can turn online public spaces into noisy, overcrowded fora where no meaningful conversation can be held. Here we analyze a large dataset of public chat logs from Twitch, a popular video streaming platform, in order to examine how information overload affects online group communication. We measure structural and textual features of conversations such as user output, interaction, and information content per message across a wide range of information loads. Our analysis reveals the existence of a transition from a conversational state to a cacophony --- a state of overload with lower user participation, more copy-pasted messages, and less information per message. These results hold both on average and at the individual level for the majority of users. This study provides a quantitative basis for further studies of the social effects of information overload, and may guide the design of more resilient online communication systems.
In considering the role that technology and e-learning can play in helping students access higher education and an effective learning experience, a large amount of the current research and practice literature focuses almost exclusively on accessibility legislation, guidelines and standards, and the rules contained within them (Abascal et al., 2004; Chisholm & Brewer, 2005; Gunderson & May, 2005; Paolucci, 2004; Reed et al., 2004; Slatin, 2005). One of the major problems of such an approach is that it has drawn higher education practitioners into thinking that their objective is to comply with rules. I argue that it is not (Seale, 2006). The objective should be to address the needs of students. The danger of only focusing on rules is that it can constrain thinking and therefore practice. We need to expand our thinking beyond that of how to comply with rules, towards how to meet the needs of students with disabilities, within the local contexts that students and practitioners are working. In thinking about how to meet the needs of students with disabilities, practitioners will need to develop their own tools. These tools might be user case studies, evaluation methodologies or conceptualizations:
With the growing professionalisation of electronic sports (or e-sports), the individuals who compete are, like their more ‘traditional’ sport counterparts, becoming celebrities. Actual competition is a fraction of the labour a professional gamer undertakes to earn a living and generate a self-brand – involving a complex arrangement of sponsorships, team-memberships, and digital reputation management. Indeed, taking part in e-sports can be understood as another mode of celebrity-creation within a particular fan community.
A key vector to the persona formation of professional gamers is gender. Female professional gamers must navigate additional hurdles than their male counterparts in the creation and management of their self-brand and attempts to commoditise their personas. Female gamers carefully negotiate and perform their gender while maintaining their status as a competitor and influencer in gaming’s highly masculinised culture. This performativity places these young women in a precarious position not just in terms of economic stability, but also in terms of their gendered identity.
This paper compares the online personas of professional gamers Matt “NaDeSHoT” Haag and Kelly “MrsViolence” Kelley, analysing their social media presences and mainstream media appearances. Reframing the labour of professional gamers as one of building a commodifiable work persona can help us better understand the economically precarious position in which young female gamers find themselves.
This book examines changing representations of masculinity in geek media, during a time of transition in which “geek” has not only gone mainstream but also become a more contested space than ever, with continual clashes such as Gamergate, the Rabid and Sad Puppies’ attacks on the Hugo Awards, and battles at conventions over “fake geek girls.” Anastasia Salter and Bridget Blodgett critique both gendered depictions of geeks, including shows like Chuck and The Big Bang Theory, and aspirational geek heroes, ranging from the Winchester brothers of Supernatural to BBC’s Sherlock and the varied superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Through this analysis, the authors argue that toxic masculinity is deeply embedded in geek culture, and that the identity of geek as victimized other must be redefined before geek culture and media can ever become an inclusive space.
Online live streaming is a new media genre that combines the broadcast of an activity with cross-modal video-mediated communication. Lacking an analytical entry point, descriptions and micro-level analysis of this type of interaction are rare. Using the case of online live streaming of video games, this paper asks two questions. First, how should a transcript look like in order to systematically account for the activity and the cross-modal communication between broadcaster and audience? Secondly, how does the unfolding of the activity influence the cross-modal discourse during online live streaming? In answering the first question, this paper develops a multi-column transcription scheme, which includes the broadcaster's spoken language & embodied conduct, the audience's written chat messages as well as an annotation of game events. It is argued that the basic principles of this format are applicable to other forms of live streaming and research questions. Afterwards, the transcript is used for exemplary analysis to address the second question. It will be demonstrated that broadcasters are more tightly regulated by the unfolding of the activity than the audience and that this leads to different cross-modal communicative practices. The numerous audience members write quick and brief single-turn messages, whereas the broadcasters are selective and produce fewer but more elaborate responses that span several utterances. Lastly, the paper introduces ‘pivoting’ and argues that it is a novel communicative behavior typical for online live streaming. Based on a second analysis, the paper will show that game events elicit pivoting utterances or messages from the broadcaster and audience, which attribute a highly contextual and locally negotiated meaning to the event.
Characters with disabilities have a surprisingly long history in science and fantasy fiction, but the date of a book's publication is no guide to the manner in which the characters with disabilities are portrayed. This paper studies, from a personal rather than an academic viewpoint, fantasy and science fiction books in the writer's own collection, and discusses some recurrent themes and motifs, with possible reasons for their use.