Audience Generated Content Management - Live Streamers’ Strategies to Overcome Unwanted Donations

Abstract

While studies of live video streaming focus primarily on donations from an economic perspective and streamers’ endorsement of donations, our study draws attention to the phenomenon of unwanted content, particularly in the context of donations. The paper examines the behavior of gaming live streamers on two leading streaming platforms: YouTube and Twitch. Our study covered hundreds of hours of public live streams conducted by streamers from four countries. Recognizing the unequal roles of streamers and their audiences, we introduce the term ‘audience generated content’ (AGC) as a subset of user generated content (UGC). In the article, we present features and conditions that may cause streamers to be reluctant about the donations they receive. We also provide typology and characteristics of strategies to overcome unwanted donations. Since aversion to certain donations is often related to their hateful nature, our article also highlights the major flaws in algorithmic monitoring.

Keywords

• Gaming live streaming
• audience generated content
• donations
• social media engagement
• user generated content