We’re All Friends Here: Examining Transparasocial Interaction on Twitch and Its Effects on Strategic Communications

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit America in 2020, the world’s leading video game live streaming platform Twitch.TV has seen explosive growth. Twitch prides itself on the relationship between its streamer-influencers and viewers. Despite the promise Twitch holds for advertisers, it remains an understudied platform. Using the theoretical lens of transparasocial interaction (TPSI), this study investigates Twitch streamers’ relationship with their viewers and the impact on sponsored promotional content using a multi-method approach. The exploratory study uses in-depth interviews to examine how ten Twitch streamers perceive their relationships with viewers, whether that relationship might be expressed in a transparasocial means and how monetization opportunities impact the streamer-viewer relationship. The main study employs a theoretical model to investigate how 316 participants perceive the efforts of a streamer new to them to develop TPSI with viewers, and how those efforts impact responses to sponsored promotion. The study found that as participants perceived a transparasocial relationship between a streamer and their viewers, the participants developed stronger feelings of parasocial interaction with the streamer, which in turn mediated sponsored promotion outcomes from the streamer, even after only one exposure. The authors conclude with theoretical and practical implications.