14 - Gamers Rise Up: Talking Politics on YouTube and Twitch (w/ Jim Sterling & Hasan Piker)
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Description
As the right dominates many online spaces, Briahna asks two prominent creators how more progressive voices can reach audiences on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Jim Sterling is an independent video game journalist and commentator whose YouTube channel skewers the "AAA" gaming industry for its exploitation of both workers and customers. Hasan Piker, a journalist with The Young Turks, also livestreams on Twitch as HasanAbi, where he pushes back against right-wing arguments while chatting with thousands of followers.
Jim's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JimSterling
Hasan's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi
Excerpt from Zeynep Tufekci's TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads
United States
Andi-Roo Libecap
Brianna, your really upped your game for me when you mentioned Natalie / Contra Points. I love her channel! I don't think I'm her typical demographic (I'm a 43yo fat white woman) but I find her videos so informative and entertaining. I've learned a lot about the incel guys and the alt-right voters, as well as the LGBTQ+ community and millennials / Gens XYZ. Hear the Bern has become one of my favorite podcasts and this episode in particular is TopShelf. Thanks for what you do here!
Clay Johnson
this is how I've described the problem of video game exclusives: imagine two car companies, like Ford and Chevrolet, and rather than building better cars, they purchased the rights to use roadways. Now, if you want to travel on I-75, you have to be driving a Ford vehicle. A gaming platform is like a car, the game is the roadway. It's a ridiculous anti-consumer practice.
Bill Eisenlauer
Clay Johnson Aaaaq