BCM241 Beta
Peer Feedback
Through my pitch feedback I was told to work on video component by lowering the volume of the background audio. While I was encouraged to keep a similar (more) professional style however I wanted to try to be more casual, using language more accessible to the niche. I did get some more feedback saying that people liked the direction of my project and continue similarly, something I tried to take on board. It was also mentioned to focus more on ethnography, something I’m going to do next.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH
For my DA I wanted to focus on being authentic about my responses and showcase my personal experience using reflexivity. As Holmes (2010) states, reflexivity is a process of self-mediation, where people react to situations, they find themselves in – they attempt to control their place in the world, being the kind of person they want to be. I made a field journal that was updated after I worked on different aspects of the project – particularly when I was streaming or playing the game. Through this I tried to include my emotional responses to the game and surrounding situations, so I can consider them objectively in the future.
My project was also, initially, grounded in participant observation however it is hard to focus on observing an audience that is mostly quiet. As I stated in my video the Rhythm Hive niche is only active around major updates, other communication tends to happen between friends. This is supported by Popova (2020) “fannish communities … do not so much form a single community as a collection of different, loosely connected (and sometimes entirely disconnected) communities.”
Because of my work in BCM215 I’m also finding my research being skewed into the more technical elements of the gameplay however over the next few weeks I’m hoping to focus on more research to support my final DA.
Reference list Holmes, M 2010, The Emotionalization of Reflexivity, Sociology (Oxford), vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 139–154. Moore, C, Barbour, K & Lee, K 2017, Five dimensions of online persona, Persona Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1–11. Popova, Milena. 2020 Follow the Trope: A Digital (Auto)ethnography for Fan Studies. In “Fan Studies Methodologies,” edited by Julia E. Largent, Milena Popova, and Elise Vist, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 33.
runaway towards the clouds with me 
Hey Steff!
First and foremost I am hella impressed with the amount of detail and precision you’ve put into figuring out how you’re gonna conquer the last few weeks of what already is a pretty detailed and deep digital artefact! Your DA as a whole is also really unique!
Both the revised and the original timeline show a real sense of direction with how you want to portray your online persona as well as how you are actually going to do it whilst still streaming on a consistent basis.
You’ve also detailed your autoethnographic approach really well and incorporated readings really well into it, as someone from the outside looking in your whole blog made your niche really easy to understand and even pretty enjoyable (so enjoyable that i followed your twitch and will definitely tune in if I ever get the opportunity!)
So my best advice for you heading into the homestretch of the task is to definitely utilise Twitter as much as possible towards the end of the task just to accumulate as much final bits of qualitative data as possible, especially as it worked earlier in the task when communicating with other people from the niche.
Other than that I wish you the best of luck in the final stages of the task and know you’re gonna do great!
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