How a popular entertainment genre on YouTube--Let's Play videos created by Minecraft players--offers opportunities for children to learn from their peers.
Every day millions of children around the world watch video gameplay on YouTube in the form of a popular entertainment genre known as Let's Play videos. These videos, which present a player's gameplay and commentary, offer children opportunities for interaction and learning not available in traditional television viewing or solo video gameplay. In this book, Michael Dezuanni examines why Let's Play videos are so appealing to children, looking in particular at videos of Minecraft gameplay. He finds that a significant aspect of the popularity of these videos is the opportunity for knowledge and skill exchange.
Focusing on Let's Play practices, the videos themselves, and fans' responses, Dezuanni argues that learning takes place through what he terms peer pedagogy—a type of nonhierarchical learning that is grounded in the personal relationships fans and players feel toward one another. Moreover, the Let's Play platform is part of a larger digital ecosystem that enables children to learn from one another in unique ways. Dezuanni explores how Let's Players enable learning opportunities, examining digital literacies, the Let's Play genre, and peer pedagogies. He then presents case studies of three successful family-friendly Let's Players of Minecraft: Stampylonghead, StacyPlays, and KarinaOMG, microcelebrities in a microindustry. Dezuanni analyzes the specific practices and characteristics of these players, paying particular attention to how they create opportunities for peer pedagogies to emerge.
Author(s): Michael Dezuanni
Series: Learning in Large-Scale Environments
Publisher: MIT Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 224
City: Cambridge
Contents
Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
1: Introduction: Learning with Minecraft and YouTube
The Minecraft “Supersystem”
The Family-Friendly Minecraft Let’s Play Microindustry
Learning with Minecraft Let’s Players
Stampylonghead, StacyPlays, and KarinaOMG
2: Minecraft’s Digital Media Literacies and Learning
Digital Making
Platform Literacies
Minecraft’s Everyday Digital Literacies
Performative Literacies
Critical Media Literacies
3: The Let’s Play Genre, Microcelebrity, and Learning
Let’s Plays as Entertainment
Let’s Play Conventions
Let’s Players and Authenticity
Social Media Entertainment
Let’s Player Celebrity and Fandom
Let’s Plays and Impassioned Learning
4: Peer Pedagogies and Digital Platforms
Introducing Peer Pedagogies
Pedagogies and Identities beyond the Classroom
The Media’s Pedagogical Functions
The Characteristics of Peer Pedagogies
Available Designs and Pedagogical Framing
5: Exploring YouTube Let’s Plays and Peer Pedagogies
The Family-Friendly Minecraft Let’s Player Microindustry
Addressing the Viewer through Entertainment and Play
Stylistic Features and Mode of Address
Audience Practices
Let’s Play Knowledge, Classification, and Framing
6: Stampy’s Lovely World
Joseph Garrett, YouTuber
Stampy’s Voice, Mode of Address, and Stylistic Features
Stampy’s Authenticity
Stampy Fandom
Stampy’s Peer Pedagogies
7: Animal Rescue with StacyPlays
Stacy Hinojosa, Minecraft Let’s Player
StacyPlays, Minecraft Celebrity, and Authenticity
StacyPlays’s “Potato Flakes”
Stacy’s Voice and Mode of Address
Stacy’s Peer Pedagogies
StacyPlays, the Teacher
8: Hanging Out with GamerGirl
KarinaOMG, YouTuber and Social Media Influencer
KarinaOMG Celebrity
GamerGirl’s Authenticity
GamerGirl’s Voice, Mode of Address, and Stylistic Features
GamerGirl’s Peer Pedagogies
9: What I Learned from Stampylonghead, StacyPlays, and KarinaOMG
How Do Minecraft Let’s Players Establish Authenticity in the Context of Social Media Entertainment?
Peer Pedagogies
10: Conclusion: Media Literacy in the Age of Minecraft and YouTube
Media Literacy with Stampy
Media Literacy for Digital Platforms
References
Index
