Let's Play - Selfmade mobile phone videos of young people

Author(s):

Tine Nowak(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 01, Media and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-07

13:30-15:00

Room:

397. [Main]

Chair:

Petra Grell

Contribution

This paper presents a case study of adaptations of the Let’s Play format by young people creating selfmade mobile phone videos.

Let's Play videos are screencasts of digital games, which are published afterwards on public video platforms (e.g. YouTube). While playing the game, the gamer comments on it. There are already Let’s Play celebrities dealing with highly involved fan communities (Potts 2014 p. 4). This gaming community is enabled “to share opinions, interpretations and cultural understandings of the game, the Let’s Plays, the gamers behind the Let’s Plays, and their own gaming experiences” (Radde-Antweiler et al. 2014 p. 17). The professional Let's Play gamers are producing with high-cost and high-standard technology (Döring 2014). At the same time some children and adolescents creating Let’s Play Videos with easy available tools such as mobile phones or tablets.

The case study is part of my thesis project on self-produced mobile phone videos of young people. The chosen sample illustrates an informal media remix practice and focuses on the young people perspective towards their own acting.

Method

The thesis project is currently in the phase of field research with qualitative group interviews, the research method is based on Grounded Theory. In this case study I interviewed young amateur Let’s play gamers in the age of 10 and 12. I was especially interested in their perspective of using mobile phones for video production. The analysis is based on (1) a theme-centered interview with two young Let's Play gamers in comparison with their broadcasted videos (2) contrasted with digital artifacts of further YouTube channels of children and adolescents (approximately 10 to 14 years old) using mobile phones and tablets to create their Let's Play videos.

Expected Outcomes

The findings suggest that popular Let's Play gamers are role models for young people. In individual YouTube channels they adapt the Let's Play format with varied modifications. Acknowledgement seems to be an trigger for the interviewed young people. This experience is given by more adolescent Let's Play gamers from their personal environment. Aspects of “mediatization" (Krotz 2009) can be identified in these practices. The selfmade mobile phone videos may be interpreted as technical artifacts documenting the educational processes as self-directed appropriation of the world in tension between internal and external views.

References

• Döring, Nicola (2014): Professionalisierung und Kommerzialisierung auf YouTube. In: merz. medien + erziehung. 58. Jg., H4/2014: Jugend - Medien - Kommerzialisierung. München, p. 24-31. URL: https://www.paedml.net/fileadmin/user_upload/Medienbildung_MCO/fileadmin/bibliothek/doering_youtube/doering-youtube.pdf; • Fjællingsdal, Kristoffer (2014): Let’s Graduate – A thematic analysis of the Let’s Play phenomenon. URL: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A752412&dswid=213; • Krotz, Friedrich (2009): Mediatization: a concept with which to grasp media and societal change. In: Lundby, K. (ed.): Mediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences. New York • Potts, Amanda (2014): ‘LOVE YOU GUYS (NO HOMO)’ How gamers and fans play with sexuality, gender, and Minecraft on YouTube. Taylor & Francis. URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17405904.2014.974635#.VM6KAcZdA7A; • Radde-Antweiler, Kerstin; Waltmathe, Michael; Zeiler, Xenia (2014): Video Gaming, Let ’s Plays and Religion: The Relevance of Researching gamevironments. Volume 1, Issue 1, Inaugural Issue. URL: http://elib.suub.uni-bremen.de/edocs/00104169-1.pdf.

Author Information

Tine Nowak (presenting / submitting)

TU Darmstadt

Media Education

Darmstadt

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