I’d rather be a cyborg than a gamerbro: How masculinity mediates research on digital play

Authors

  • Nick Taylor North Carolina State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v34i64.96990

Keywords:

esports, ethnography, feminism, methodology

Abstract

This article offers a feminist and media-theoretical approach to ethnographic reflexivity, understood as the researcher’s own agency in shaping encounters with and producing accounts of digital cultures. Looking specifically at male-dominated domains of intensive and competitive play in public sites, such as arcades, local area network (LAN) parties, and eSports tournaments, this article asks: How might masculinity mediate studies of digital play? To address this, I weave together feminist ethnography with materialist media theory, offering an understanding of researcher subjectivity (in this case, my subjectivity) as a media instrument: An assemblage of social locations and learned competencies which does not simply gather, but configures and legitimates, particular knowledges about gaming cultures. Applying this to a problematic instance from fieldwork I conducted at a large-scale gaming event in 2011, I work through the methodological and epistemological quandaries associated with both studying and embodying the social privileges associated with male-dominated media cultures.

Author Biography

Nick Taylor, North Carolina State University

Assistant Professor

Department of Communication

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Published

2018-06-14

How to Cite

Taylor, N. (2018). I’d rather be a cyborg than a gamerbro: How masculinity mediates research on digital play. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 34(64), 21 p. https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v34i64.96990