Exploring community online: why not just stream it?

This thesis explores the ways that online communities have adapted to the online environment. It also attempts to help de-mystify online communities through their description and explanation. By observing the ways that Twitch promotes community through its own website, Twitch Creator Camp, and by focusing on two Twitch communities this thesis shows that communities online are being entangled with capital. Twitch is a hub for online communities where people create and engage with content in real-time. We could even say that online interpersonal connections are a corner stone of social and professional lives in a pandemic. It is thus crucial that we understand the way community functions through Twitch as it will provide insights into different ways that community is adapting to the present world, the online world. Twitch Creator Camp is a place where Twitch can dictate the creation of community on their platform, three main themes arise from the analysis of Twitch Creator Camp: engagement, commodification, and entanglement. Twitch Creator Camp exists to help naturalise the entanglement of community and capital. The case studies revolve around communities created by ‘streamers’ on Twitch, a streamer being someone who live broadcasts on Twitch. The observational data helps to show that capital and community get entangled within the context of real communities. I argue four main points in this thesis. First, that communities based on Twitch transcend the constraints of space and time as there is constant access to community. Second, these communities are centred around a shared interest as opposed to being derived from location or occupation. Third, community as endorsed by Twitch and created by streamers blurs the lines between participation and monetisation. Fourth, that the entanglement of capital and community online is problematic for the evolution of community as it helps to normalise a style of pay-to-fully-participate community.