2.1 Twitch and the rise of Social Media Live Streaming

Social Media Live Streaming (SMLS) refers to any technology that allows live videos to be made and distributed through social networks by means of their own applications associated with them, providing instant feedback to the sender of the same (^{Apablaza-Campos & Codina, 2018}). Its boom, in the context of a society immersed in social networks, is reliant on capturing the viewer’s attention and the development of content in a more “live” way (Herrero de la Fuente & García Domínguez, 2019, p. 45).

One of the pioneering platforms in SMLS was Periscope (^{Apablaza-Campos, Morales Vargas, Lopezosa, Salvat & Codina, 2020}), a live streaming application bought by Twitter in its development phase in 2015 and which became a trendy place to follow all kinds of events (^{Jiménez Cano, 2016}). A contemporary example is Twitch, a medium that “combines broadcast video with open IRC chat channels” (^{Hamilton, Garretson & Kerne, 2014}, p. 1). The foundations of the platform therefore lie in the conjunction of two communicative pathways: video broadcasting and textual communication derived from live chat. Its origin dates to 2007, the year in which Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel and Kyle Vogt created the Justin. tv website to show for 24 hours a day the life of the former (^{Ramis, 2021}; ^{Rice, 2012}). In 2014 Amazon acquired the platform for $970 million (^{Zhang & Liu, 2015}), a year in which Twitch already ranked as the fourth largest source of peak US Internet traffic (^{Pires & Simon, 2015}).

Throughout its history as a platform, Twitch has been incorporating a series of tools aimed at improving the experience of streamers and viewers, turning their browsing into an enri ched experience (^{Valero, 2023}). First, Twitch offers the option to the follower of a channel to subscribe by means of a payment -in three levels- to financially support that streamer and obtain rewards linked mainly to the use of chat (^{Ramis, 2021}). The chat is one of the key pieces of Twitch, understood as a space where users can share and exchange impressions in real time about what the streamer is transmitting (Ramis, 2021). Another of the functionalities that Twitch presents and that allows structuring and classifying the transmissions is the system of categories and tags that streamers put on their live streams according to the content to be broadcast (Ramis, 2021).

There are three types of recognition as a streamer within Twitch (^{Ramis, 2021}), each with their respective advantages and privileges. At a first level, there is the regular streamer, with which one begins to create content on the platform, without the ability to open subscriptions, the ad system or the donation of bits -the platform’s own virtual currency. As the frequency of transmissions and the average audience increases, the streamer can become an affiliate or partner, acquiring greater functionalities and a higher percentage of revenue from subscriptions. Although brands continue to play an important role in financing -through sponsorships or advertisements- the main source of income for streamers is the content they generate (SixtoGarcía & Losada-Fernández, 2023).

The aforementioned interaction or live feedback of SMLS puts the focus on community generation. Live streaming platforms that incorporate interaction functionalities generate a “singular atmosphere” (^{Buitrago, Martín-García & Torres-Ortiz, 2022}, p. 62) between viewers and content creators. This phenomenon derives largely from the fact of sharing a series of common verbal, graphic and even environmental codes. However, the premise for a user to come to take part in a broadcast is the existence of a common motivation (^{Zhao, Chen, Cheng & Wang, 2018}). It is worth emphasizing the establishment of ties with young people, social interactions, and the formation of a sense of community (^{Hilvert-Bruce et al., 2018}) as key aspects when understanding broadcasts as those “virtual third places” (^{Hamilton et al., 2014}, p. 9) in which informal communities socialize and participate are growing.

The motivations of the streamer -to obtain feedback, interaction, and engagement with users (^{Zhao et al., 2018})- and the motivations of social and community interaction (^{Sjöblom & Hamari, 2017}) are intertwined in the community. The content creator fosters a space in terms of hospitality (^{Introna & Brigham, 2007}) so that the user feels at all times that they are important and influential within the community (^{Hilvert-Bruce et al., 2018}) at the same time that the users themselves also suppose a strong emotional support for the streamers (^{Wohn, Freeman & McLaughlin, 2018}).

2.2 Brand journalism: new roles at the frontier of journalism and marketing

The capacity of influence that the journalistic profession still has with respect to citizens (^{Tascón & Pino, 2014}) encourages brands to increasingly bring their positions closer to journalism. This phenomenon is closely related to what is known as brand journalism, based on the “generation of useful or interesting content for a brand’s audience with the aim of connecting the brand with the consumer” (^{Hernández, 2007}, p. 90), through news that “resemble journalistic publications in terms of content and layout” (^{Koch, Viererbl & Schulz-Knappe, 2023}, p. 2). It is a product positioning strategy that takes advantage of the availability and low cost of digital tools (OssorioVega, 2015) to give the content created a journalistic appearance, in many cases generated by the medium itself. ^{Micó (2019}) defines it as “journalism on the outside, but something else on the inside” that can have profoundly negative consequences on the reputation of the journalistic profession -a profession that has already been punished in recent times.

Questions about the blurred boundaries between journalism and marketing have their extension in debates around the figure of influencers, subjects with the ability to influence a certain group and change their opinions (Santamaría & Meana, 2017). In most cases, journalists prefer to consider these network figures as “peripheral actors” (^{Perreault & Hanusch, 2022}) who, despite sharing habits with them, largely belong to other fields such as advertising. This limits them in issues that are essential to journalism, such as independence and neutrality (Perreault & Hanusch, 2022), although they may maintain an informative purpose in the content generated (^{Negreira-Rey, Vázquez-Herrero & López-García, 2022}).

^{Mellado and Hermida (2021}) propose three roles of journalists in social media that represent part of journalistic routines nowadays: promoter, celebrity, and joker. The promoter role is an increasingly notable trend in journalistic discourse (^{Hanusch & Bruns, 2017}; ^{Molyneux & Holton, 2015}). The journalist becomes an “authentic and commodified self ” (^{Jerslev & Mortensen, 2016}, p. 3) in social media that pushes professionals to brand themselves (Mellado & Hermida, 2021) and to distinguish themselves from other information providers for the benefit of flexibility and polyvalence (^{Deuze, 2007}a). In fact, self-promotion is one of the most recurrent online activities of journalists (^{Al-Rawi, 2020}).

Celebrity was defined by ^{Turner (2004}, p. 9) as “a commodity traded by the promotions, publicity, and media industries that produce these representations and their effects.” The fact of increasing one’s exposure and visibility supposes in the current media ecosystem a “central strategy” (^{Ottovordemgentschenfelde, 2017}, p. 6) to be able to profit from the platforms -this is also a conscious activity (^{Mellado & Hermida, 2021}).

The role of the joker, third in ^{Mellado and Hermida’s (2021}) proposal, is based on the conception of humor as a form of communication and a cultural process that is fully integrated into social relations (^{Mulder & Nijholt, 2002}). Thus, the joker has been a key figure throughout history since “to exist, an individual or group of people must generate humor” (Mellado & Hermida, 2021, p. 6). Journalists use humor and sarcasm as resources to connect and interact with the audience (^{Holton & Lewis, 2011}) and to negotiate the meaning of informational content in multiple ways (Mellado & Hermida, 2021).

Beyond the role of journalists on social platforms, marketing is reflected in the search for entrepreneurial solutions, self-employment, and personal brand management, due to a critical economic scenario. The irremediable loss of profitability represents one of the biggest problems for the media sector, which has led them to a loss-making business model (^{Abejón-Mendoza, 2021}). The fall in advertising investment revenues led to the emergence of new business models and the diversification of income in the media (^{Casero-Ripollés & Izquierdo-Castillo, 2013}; ^{Vara-Miguel, Sádaba, Negredo & Sánchez-Blanco, 2023}), as well as the scarcity of opportunities in the journalistic labor market and precariousness (^{APM, 2022}; ^{Deuze, 2007}b), in the context of a professional crisis that also accompanies an economic and confidence crisis (^{Nielsen, 2016}), leading to a situation in which journalists are forced to seek alternatives to survive professionally.

Connected to the development of the network and new technologies (^{Goyanes, 2016}), entrepreneurial journalism emerges, defined as “a set of initiatives led by journalists for the creation of new media promoted by themselves and that move away from the traditional industrial model, whose shareholding corresponds to large media groups or companies outside the sector” (^{Manfredi, Rojas-Torrijos & Herranz-de-la-Casa, 2015, p. 70}). Among the contributions that entrepreneurial journalism offers to the profession (^{Casero-Ripollés, 2016}) are economic and labor dynamization, the establishment of new models of information companies that also transform the facet of the content creator, the renewal of formats and genres, and the democratic impulse through the incorporation of new voices in the media field. The Twitch platform is one of the new supports for the development of entrepreneurial journalism.

4.1 Approach to informative channels on Twitch

A first look at the journalistic initiatives identified on the Twitch streaming platform reveals a series of clear differences between channels that make up a sort of communicative miscellany in which there are digital native initiatives (38.2%), legacy media (23.6%), journalists and communicators with a career in traditional media (21.2%) and digital trajectory (16.4%). The analyzed group presents a diverse character and, although there is a commitment to content to differentiate brands, there is also an adherence to common patterns on the platform.

Firstly, it is important to note that there is no correlation (r = 0.531) between the volume of followers of the channels studied and their volume of activity (Table 5). Although large accounts such as Gerard Romero (576,200 followers), Siro López (290,600) or El Chiringuito (883,400) have an almost daily presence on Twitch, this also applies to profiles with smaller communities such as Fran Castarlenas (451 followers), El Salto (5,000) or La Futura Channel (2,700). In contrast, some channels such as Rafael Escrig (44,000 followers), Tamayo (80,000) or Playz (29,700), with a remarkable following at the time of this research (April 2023), have virtually no activity on the platform.

Another of the salient aspects that can be extracted from this exploratory study is that the majority rely on the main image for their channels using a single professional -such as elDiario.es with Ignacio Escolar- or a small group of protagonists -for example, Diario AS (Tomás Roncero, Pepe Brasín, Alba López or Juanma Rubio) or CRTVG (Esther Estévez, Gabriel Fuentes, Yaiza López or Merce Silva, among others). A brief inquiry into the origin and professional trajectory of these figures shows a majority group of professionals who combine their work on Twitch with their activity -in many cases with long careers- in traditional media and communication support such as radio or press. There is also a group of communicators with a dominant presence in digital environments, both professionally linked to journalism -Carles Tamayo or Ágora Fútbol- or from other sectors -publicist Marcos G. Rayado or La Hiperactina, a graduate in Biomedical Sciences.

It should also be noted that the vast majority of channels, regardless of their degree of activity, offer specific programming with formats that are given their own name. With the media profiles, this differentiation of formats also serves to distribute their professional staff, in a very strong program-director association, as in the case of Los Mundos de Charcastrology (La Futura Channel) with Charas Vega, or #NanisimoenNewtral (Newtral) with journalist Emilio Doménech. These streams are in most cases exclusive to Twitch, although occasionally other platforms such as YouTube or TikTok are used to store fragments of the same and favor promotion and feedback between platforms, as is the case with Newtral, Siro López, or Marcos Futfem.

In certain cases, especially in individual profiles, live programs are organized around a single program that encompasses all the channel’s broadcasts. This is the case with Fernando Berlín’s La Cafetera and Facu Díaz›s Buenos Días In The Morning, accounts on which there is no clear distinction between channel and program.

Within the diversity of informative initiatives on Twitch, sports predominate (Table 6), together with generalist channels specialized in politics, science, culture, or fact-checking, as well as channels fully focused on infotainment. Analysis of the content incorporated by the different media and journalists in their broadcasts shows a clear predominance of formats related to current affairs on a specific topic, either with expert guests or in conversation with viewers. To a lesser extent, live broadcasts are used to rebroadcast events -such as the conferences of elDiario.es or the space launches of C de Ciencia -or broadcasts of programs from other media in the form of “visual radio”- such as El Ágora de Hora 25 on Cadena SER or Tiempo de Juego on COPE.

Source: own elaboration.

Figure 1 Ranking of news channels identified on Twitch 

Regarding timing, it is worth mentioning the use made by the analyzed channels of the option to establish a precise calendar to guide their followers (43.6% of the channels use a calendar), a function that usually coincides with a greater program volume. Those channels that offer a greater number of programs and specific and differentiated content -such as Diario AS, Nico Abad, Maldita or El Salto- include a calendar oriented to the schedule of each program. Media and journalists with sporadic presence on the platform do not use the calendar function, or in some cases, such as CRTVG, it is incomplete.

The analysis of the relationship between the channel and the viewers allows us to identify a general intention to create a two-way communicative environment in which there is frequent conversation with the viewers and reference is made to the messages left by them in the chat. However, some profiles such as Gerard Romero’s or Fran Castarlenas’ (among others) grant a higher level of presence to the audience, incorporating them more intensely into the broadcasts. In the case of the former, there is a strategy of converting the viewers themselves into potential reporters who travel and collaborate in the provision of information. Castarlenas, on the other hand, incorporates personal conversations with viewers into specific content of live broadcasts. On other accounts such as Tiempo de Juego de COPE or OkDiario, there is no contact with viewers at all.

4.2 Journalism on Twitch: case studies

The observation of the quantitative data on the community and business models (Table 7) of the

profiles selected for a more exhaustive analysis shows the dimensional diversity of the sample.

One of the main aspects that needs to be addressed is the economic-financial one. The data collected show that only two of the channels studied -Marca and Ágora Fútbol- have partner status, which allows them to obtain a higher profit from subscriptions, since none of the accounts receive income from sponsorship. It is precisely these channels that have a higher level of followers, although the volume of followers does not necessarily imply a higher ranking. An illustrative case is that of Cadena SER which, despite being the fourth channel in terms of number of followers, is at the lowest position on the platform due to the scarce and intermittent activity it carries out on it. This irregular frequency, according to Sara Meijide from SER, may be caused by “the fear that it is a passing fad and that it may burst.”

When asked about economic sustainability, the individual profiles are those that have a more negative view of the possibilities of success on the platform. Fran Castarlenas speaks of “ruin” and Marcos G. Rayado, despite highlighting the advantages of monetization -an aspect also mentioned by Yago Álvarez of El Salto and Roque Oller of Ágora Fútbol- points out that the activity on Twitch lacks sufficient profitability to be considered a job. While maintaining a general critical view, the media are committed to a presence on this type of platform, pointing to its innovative nature (as noted by Beatriz Lara from Maldita), how it complements communication (as Yago Álvarez from El Salto observed), and the possibilities of interaction (according to Javier Estepa, from Marca).

The relationship between hours broadcast and hours viewed by audiences (Table 8) shows the logical link between volume of followers and views, such that, while each hour broadcast by Marca generates 2,589 hours of views, in the case of Fran Castarlenas it barely reaches 44 hours of viewing for each hour broadcast. These inequalities are also reflected in the volume of viewers. Despite having a notable viewer community in terms of number of followers, the smaller channels also grow at a much slower pace than the big ones such as Marca or Ágora Fútbol, whose audience ratings also bring them dozens -even hundreds- of new followers per week.

In terms of organization, all the cases analyzed, except Marcos Futfem, have a section on their profile in which they set out the streaming schedule of their content. In some cases, however, the schedule appears outdated or incomplete when contrasted with the broadcasts they develop, as in the profile of Marca or Maldita. On the other hand, all channels include in their biography a link to their main social media (Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and/or YouTube), except in the case of El Salto, which uses this space to include links both to the media’s website and to its subscription section.

In general terms, live programs have a similar duration (Table 9), around an hour and a half, with a notable upturn in the case of Ágora Fútbol, whose daily program is longer than two hours. This circumstance coincides with the objectives set by Marcos G. Rayado in the short term, with “fewer and longer direct programs.” This is one of the aspects that is part of the program strategy that works, as mentioned by Javier Estepa and Fran Castarlenas, based on “trial and error.”

In the face of the wide variety of topics (including soccer, economics, politics, society) addressed by all channels -in line with their diverse nature- a common bond emerges when developing certain formats. The talk is the type used by all the profiles analyzed and, together with the interview, they are the dominant formats, in line with the intention of “incorporating voices outside the debate,” as Yago Álvarez from El Salto observed. All channels handle a notable volume of experts -around five on average- incorporating up to twelve specialized figures in the case of Maldita. In most cases, they try to review current affairs. Even so, some interviewees, such as David Adán from Ágora Fútbol, speak of a commitment to “improvisation” and “fresher formats,” as described by Beatriz Lara from Maldita.

In terms of communication, all channels use an informal register, typical of the relaxed atmosphere they are trying to create. In the case of media linked to traditional media, such as Cadena SER or Marca, there are clear differences that serve to exemplify two ways of approaching information on the platform. While the live programs that orbit around El Ágora de Hora 25 or Javier Estepa have a more formal and serious character without interrupting the relaxed atmosphere -for example, the neutral monitoring of press conferences and news related to the final of a sports competition; in the case of #ElTaburete and David Sánchez humor and irony are much more present -in addition to assessing controversial aspects in a very personal way.

Roque Oller and David Adán of Ágora Fútbol even incorporate jokes and comedy into their streams, an emotional component that Marcos G. Rayado also defends, given that “the plat form requires a combination of humor and information to develop journalistic work.” For Sara Meijide from Cadena SER, on Twitch “naturalness is rewarded without losing credibility,” a view shared by Yago Álvarez from El Salto, stating that “it is possible to do journalism and end up with a joke.”

The interviewees agree that instant interaction with viewers is one of the strong points offered by the platform. At a basic level, this relationship with the chat is carried out by referring to the messages left by users during the live stream, incorporating these contributions in the course of discussions, interviews or current affairs overviews. In media such as Marca the relationship is much less intense than in channels such as El Salto or Ágora Fútbol, where the opinions and messages from viewers have a direct impact on the structure of the broadcast on a continuous basis.

There are complementary resources to the chat, such as the survey, which gain strength in profiles such as Marcos G. Rayado’s or Ágora Fútbol, which frequently use games and dynamics of a playful nature in their broadcasts. The emphasis is on the ability to create “a small but loyal community that can communicate about what it likes,” as Rayado notes, but which “is not always easy to manage,” according to Roque Oller and David Adán.

Considering the characteristics of the journalistic activity developed by the channels in the study, a clear dominance of interpretative and opinionated journalism can be appreciated. Although the provision of more serious and neutral information also plays an important role, such as the injury of a soccer player (in the case of Marcos Futfem) or the denial of hoaxes on issues such as transphobia or cybercrime (in Maldita), the personal aspect is the essence that surrounds most of the broadcasts. The commitment to the participation of experts who complement the broadcasting of channels such as El Salto or Maldita coexists with the incorporation of personal experience, anecdotes, and personal opinions used to get closer to the viewer.

This personal touch is much stronger on individual profiles, in which there is usually a greater weight of opinion, such as Marcos G. Rayado or Fran Castarlenas. The latter has a specific section (El Comentario) in which he writes a very personal chronicle about the matches or the current affairs of the Real Zaragoza soccer club since, in the words of the journalist himself, “people do not want to know things like the new signing of Zaragoza, but my opinion about it.”

Sara Meijide from Cadena SER conceives the essence of Twitch as “an opportunity for journalism to play its trump cards” and “adapt its discourse to the new demands.” Meijide and Marcos G. Rayado, Fran Castarlenas, Beatriz Lara and Roque Oller agree in highlighting the figure of Ibai Llanos, a person who, as Sara Meijide points out, “made chats and ramblings fashionable” and who pointed out a market niche for the profession.

Legacy media such as Marca give more space to more neutral information -the lives streams not conducted by David Sánchez- since their objective is “not to renounce ethical codes” (Javier Estepa). In this sense, the latter also stresses the idea of “enhancing the strength of the brand,” an aspect that is evidenced in self-referential pieces produced by the media itself, carried out by both Marca and Maldita.