Socialization as Resistance: Digital Community Formation and the Politics of Chat

The global proliferation of technology and digital media has brought people together at the same time that it promotes US imperialism and online marginalization. In the world of esports, or competitive gaming, countries like the US, China, and South Korea continue to dominate both in performance and market share, leaving little room for other nations to compete. At the same time, streaming platforms which promote those same games face a growing issue of prejudice directed towards users that belong to marginalized groups, including queer people and people of color. Using Internet researcher André Brock's (2018) critical technocultural discourse analysis method in conjunction with participant observation and interviews, this project introduces the concept of the "politics of chat," an analytical framework that encompasses a network of social relations exemplified in the Twitch chat function, but which spills out beyond on to other platforms and even into real-world networking. Through the politics of chat, this project conducts a comparative analysis of two case studies: one taking place in Senegal, where a growing esports community is beginning to connect with other competitive gamers in postcolonial nations; the second taking place in the community of PekinWoof, a competitive game streamer who has developed a large queer community in spite of his own heterosexuality. By demonstrating how community participation (or lack thereof) allows individuals to construct their own safe spaces, my project identifies structures that enable the processes of resistance in digital environments and how they may be replicated.