Understanding Memetic Media and Collective Identity Through Streamer Persona on Twitch.tv - Abstract, Introduction and Analysis

Sep 15, 2026

Video game livestreamers on Twitch present curated streamer personas that are negotiated with viewers, producing collectively performed identities centered on individual channels. These collective personas arise through live performance, Twitch platform features such as streamer emoticons and audiovisual overlays, the games chosen, and the style of play. The paper examines how these elements create a feedback loop between streamers and non-streamer participants, focusing on how platform features mediate interactions and enable meme-driven memetic media formation that shapes collective identity and social value systems.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time7 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Twitch, Persona, and Collective Identity

Memes, Agency, and Identity

UNDERSTANDING MEMETIC MEDIA AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY THROUGH STREAMER PERSONA ON TWITCH.TV NATHAN J. JACKSON UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES ABSTRACT Video game livestreamers on the leading platform [Twitch.tv](Twitch.tv) present a carefully curated version of themselves - negotiated in part via interactions with their viewers - resulting in collectively performed personas centred around individual streamers. These collective personas emerge from a combination of live performance, platform features including streamer-specific emoticons and audiovisual overlays, the games that streamers play, and how they play them. In this paper, I interrogate how these elements culminate in a feedback loop between individual streamers and non-streamer participants, specifically how platform features mediate and facilitate interactions between users. I also examine streaming persona as both a product and expression of this dynamic and the subsequent emergence of streamer-based social arrangement and collective value systems. I do this with particular attention to how memes operate uniquely within the livestreaming mode. KEY WORDS Livestreaming; Persona; Mimetic Media; Collective Identity; Performance; Video Games INTRODUCTION In this paper, I define memesis1 – not to be confused with mimesis – as the performative process by which Internet users draw upon existing memes to create new memetic media. By examining memesis through two contrasting Twitch streamer case studies – RayNarvaezJr and PaladinAmber – I address the impact of different users on the formation of the streaming persona and stream collective through questions of user agency. Further, I demonstrate how memes appear within games and emerge from them during streams, thereby mediating gamespectator dynamics. Finally, I introduce a temporal layer by linking memesis with the memetic histories of stream collectives. This analysis is rooted in streamers’performances of persona, interactions with their viewers, and the resulting collective identities that emerge through streams. By understanding the creation of memes as a cultural process linked to collective identity formulation, a new framework for examining digital persona arises. This paper demonstrates how multiple phenomena that occur all over the Internet intersect: memes are built into our online interactions; the sharing of video game content online has developed and sustained enormous followings over the past fifteen years; and online identity – both collective and individual – is constructed and performed online. The arguments I present here generalise well beyond this context to illuminate dynamics within digital culture around identity construction and content circulation. TWITCH, PERSONA, AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY Online persona can be best understood by recontextualising pre-digital notions ofthe concept. Marshall (2010) begins this work by mobilising Jung’s (1928) and Goffman’s (1956) understandings of persona as a product of interactions with an external collective in everyday life. On Twitch, the streaming persona emerges and is reflexively defined through the interactions between the streamer and spectators. Otherwise, also known as impression management, this constitutes a particular form of micro-celebrity (Senft 2008) . As scholarly interest in Twitch grows, studies emphasise that sociality is one of the primary motivations for continued use (Ask et al. 2019; Hilvert-Bruce et al. 2018; Sȷ̈oblom and Hamari 2017; Sȷ̈oblom et al. 2017). Twitch operates as a social space through a combination of the relationship between active spectators and the streamer-spectator relationship (Bingham 2020; Chen and Lin 2018). As such, participatory communities emerge with the streaming persona at their core (Hamilton et al. 2014). The values presented by the streaming persona are thus reflected in the behaviours of members of chat (Consalvo 2018), and I argue that this leads to a collective variation of the streaming

FAQs

How does Twitch shape streamer persona formation?

Streamer persona emerges through reflexive interactions between the streamer and spectators, supported by Twitch features such as subscriber emotes and audiovisual overlays.

What role do subscriber emotes play in collective identity?

Subscriber emotes are Twitch-specific emoticons commissioned by streamers and used by spectators, mobilizing persona and collective vernacular to form a shared collective identity in chat.

What does the paper mean by memesis?

Memesis is defined as a performative process in which internet users draw on existing memes to create new memetic media, mediated through streaming dynamics and meme histories within stream collectives.

Sep 15, 2026

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