Turning heads and making conversation on Twitch

Abstract

This paper undertakes an analysis of the streaming platform Twitch. Twitch is premised upon a single Streamer and a large audience. Interaction between a Streamer and an individual Chat member is constructed by the Streamer through a form of acknowledgement and ratification that leads to a momentary encounter. Strategic ‘reading’ and reading aloud not only function to link and sustain conversation, they also structure the embodied performance of the streamer, who must shift their visual attention away from the primary activity. These head movements are then a primary resource for interaction.Through a Conversation Analytic approach, the paper identifies a ‘reading-reading aloud-responding’ action or R(RA)R as an interactional resource for engaging audience members in ongoing conversation. The analysis is in line with the ‘respecification’ of ‘mediated interaction’ (Arminen et al., 2016) and moves towards a ‘digital CA’ (Giles et al., 2015). It contributes to an ongoing project that looks to ‘digitise Sacks’ (Housley et al., 2017) and inform methodological development of future analysis of technology-mediated interaction.