Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2022, Sociology

Erving Goffman's (1956) work on the presentation of self is incredibly influential in our theoretical understanding of social interaction. Today, many interactions occur online. This brings up the question: How do we present ourselves in virtual spaces? One virtual space that is gaining in popularity is online video game streaming, where streamers broadcast themselves playing video games and can interact with views in the chat. While some work has looked at how people use the presentation of self while playing online video games, little work has focused on how streamers present themselves while live-streaming. Aspects of video gaming are especially important to look at when considering that inequalities, especially along race and gender lines, have been common within gaming. With this in mind, I focused on three main questions within this research: How do video game streamers use the presentation of self while they are streaming? How is their presentation of self connected to emotions and emotional labor through this digital platform? And does their presentation reinforce, perpetuate, and/or challenge existing social inequalities? I found that the streamers fall onto what I refer to as the Gamer-Entertainer continuum, with some streamers focusing more on the game and their skills, while others focused on being entertaining and interacting with the audience. This continuum was gendered, with men being more likely to be Gamers and women more likely to be Entertainers. Further, this continuum connected to the amount and types of emotion management and emotional labor the streamers engaged in. Gamers were more likely to have their emotions tied to how well they were doing in the game, including expressing anger, while Entertainers managed their emotions to be positive overall and attended to the emotions of the audience through interactions. Race also impacted emotion management, with white men being more likely to express anger while men of color suppressed it. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Tiffany Taylor (Advisor); Kathryn Feltey (Committee Member); Mary Triece (Committee Member); Christopher Dum (Committee Member); Clare Stacey (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology