Learning to Live-stream: A Digital Ethnography of Relational Labor

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Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (12) : 6-28.

Learning to Live-stream: A Digital Ethnography of Relational Labor

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Abstract

According to the 45th Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development, as of March 2020, live-streaming show in China, which attracted 207 million users, has become an important economic industry. Previous studies often employed concept of emotional labor to investigate how live-streaming platforms alienated and exploited the practitioners. However, on the one hand, this approach largely ignored the live-streamers’ subjective experience; on the other hand, the use of emotional labor also showed limitations in explaining the live-streamers’ working practice. Therefore, based on a 12-month digital ethnography, this study combines “relational labor” and “platformization” to examine how live-streamers negotiate the economic and intimate relationships with their audiences inside/outside the live-streaming platform, and concludes three strategies of “pricing”, “differentiation” and “boundary”. The study also makes a further theoretical reflection on relational labor, platformization and the subjectivity of live-streamers.

Key words

live-streamer / digital ethnography / relational labor / platformization / dual precarity

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. Learning to Live-stream: A Digital Ethnography of Relational Labor. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2021, 43(12): 6-28

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