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Received September 9, 2024
The Psychology of Live Streaming
Volume 5, Issue 4, https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000147
Published onDec 19, 2024
The Psychology of Live Streaming
Abstract
The popularity of live streaming video has increased dramatically in recent years. In this special issue of Technology, Mind, and Behavior, we feature four articles on various facets of this phenomenon. This introduction briefly summarizes their contributions to our understanding of the psychology of live streaming as well as its effects on individuals, including the motivations of users, the relationships between streamers and their audiences, when and why some streamers are perceived as more authentic than others, and the consequences of streaming influencers’ endorsements of products.
Keywords: live streaming, twitch, youtube, influencers, streamers
Open Access License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format for noncommercial use provided the original authors and source are credited and a link to the license is included in attribution. No derivative works are permitted under this license.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elliot Panek, Department of Journalism and Creative Media, The University of Alabama, 901 University Boulevard, Box 870172, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, United States. Email: [email protected]
Use of online video has increased dramatically over the past decade, so much so that the internet has, for many, evolved from a text-first medium to a video-first medium with all the richness and immersiveness associated with moving images. But not all video content is created equal, nor should we expect it to have the same effects on individuals and society. The first surge of popular online video comprised prerecorded video, created and uploaded by users or professionally produced and made available by streaming services like Netflix. Increases in internet speed allowed for another kind of popular online video: live streaming. Combining the spontaneity of broadcast media like television and radio with the intimacy and scalability of online communication, live streaming is substantively different than what has come before. To enhance our understanding of this phenomenon, we sought to collect research from the foremost scholars working in this area.
Though live streaming is commonly associated in the public imagination with video games, its breadth of content and motivations for use go far beyond this one realm. While live streaming is the key function of several platforms, such as Twitch, it has also become a popular feature of the most used online platforms of the day, including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Thus, furthering our knowledge of media psychology in the networked era requires an understanding of live streamers and their audiences.
Some watch live streamers to learn something new; whether they actually learn more than viewers of nonlive online video is an important question, one explored in this issue. Others use live streaming to forge new relationships, either with the streamers or with other audience members. Live streaming offers audiences the opportunity to engage in media-rich, real-time interactions with content creators. What kinds of relationships do such interactions lead to?
In addition to variations in motivation, live streaming audiences vary in size, from millions of spectators to a small group of intimates. This difference alters not just the social dynamic between the creator and the audience but also the way content creators are perceived. Might the liveness of live streaming, when combined with a sufficiently small audience, allow some live streamers to achieve that highly sought after yet highly elusive attribute of perceived authenticity?
Live streaming has also become a profession, with streamers making money through subscription fees, audience donations, or product promotion. When live streamers use their connection with audiences to sell something, how effective is it, and what are the consequences beyond their ability to simply sell products?
The collection of innovative research showcased here covers a wide breadth of live streaming experiences from audience and streamer perspectives. Live streaming affords us all entertainment, learning, connecting and interacting with others, and buying and selling goods and services in new ways. This collection explores and explains some of these new opportunities psychologically.
