Live through a ritualised ‘Life’

Constantly growing communication technology, media

developments and innovations open up new ways for us to

connect with friends, meet new people, reconnect with old

classmates, and foremost give us the ability to keep in

touch with our family and loved ones. One of the most

popular gadgets that aid us to achieve all this is the

webcam, introduced in 1991, which has ever since improved

in both video streaming quality and usability. For the

following essay, I will look at the video transmission

function of a webcam and analyse its prime usage with the

concept of ritual and the idea of ritualization.

Therefore, I have decided to narrow my examples down to

the idea of online performance as a ritual, in this case

through the use of the online messenger application

Skype, as well as the use the webcam as a presentation

device, most commonly seen on the video broadcasting

website YouTube. Both of these examples relate to Nick

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Couldry’s concept of liveness, which talks about

performances in real time “with simultaneous co-presence

of performers and audiences.” (Frei 2013:36) Taking in

consideration that the idea of YouTube as a performance

ritual has been a popular topic in the past, I attempt to

exemplify one of the more overseen genres within this

community: The genre of videogames has risen to the top

in 2013 and serves as an interesting basis for the

concept of rituals. Throughout the essay I will draw

primarily on the ideas of theorists such as Nick Couldry,

Ronald Grimes, and Emilé Durkheim but also Mirca Madianou

and Daniel Miller, who conducted an essential research in

the field of polymedia and the usage of virtual

communication tools.

First of all, I would like to give a clear

understanding of the term media ritual and what it consists

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of: A media ritual itself, according Nick Couldry, is

often associated with the idea of maintaining and

producing social integrity and applies to a multiplicity

of things that can be found within celebrity culture, a

specific media events, and even Reality TV. Media

Rituals are therefore actions “that reproduce the ‘myth’

of the media as privileged access points to the centre of

society”, also known as the myth of the mediated centre. (Guan

2010:77) To reproduce this myth, Durkheim argues that

rituals gain their special appeal from semiotic

arrangements that have the ability to relate concepts

either to the sacred or the profane respectively. (Grimes

2011:189) The power of media-oriented rituals is based

on, according to Bräuchler in “Theorising Media and

Practice”, what is considered to be ‘in’ the media and

respectively, what ‘is not’ in the media. (Bräuchler et

al 2010:48) Following Durkheim’s theory as well as his

notion on rituals is considered an elementary approach on

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how communities are held together. As a result, I decided

to choose aforementioned topic to give a more in-depth

view on how visual online communication can bring people

closer together through the use of diverse rituals but

also serve a performative role, in which users might aim

to inform, entertain or simply present themselves to the

vast World Wide Web.

The Internet was the initiator for online

communication and the power to cross borders

electronically while maintaining relationships with

either family or friends without the actual physical

presence. As Carman Neustaedter points out, primarily

social media opened up new possibilities to connect

worldwide and new technology is constantly being

developed, trying to keep up with the needs of the

younger generations. (Neustaedter et al, 2012:170)

Although there exist numerous possibilities to

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communicate with others nowadays, I will focus primarily

on Skype, and mediums alike that use webcam and chat-

based features, to analyse the rituals involved in the

process of exchange. Both instant messaging applications

and social media platforms have become a crucial and

valuable part in our lives. Just as Paddy Scannell

described the importance of broadcasting as constitutive

of ordinary life, communication technology has earned an

equally important role in the 21st century. (Morley,

2000:109) A quick chat, a Skype call home or a simple

text message: all of these activities have become daily

activities that simplify our social interaction with an

extended reach. Especially the younger generations have

become bound to this ritual of communicating through the

use of electronic devices. Anyone who is unable to

compete with the latest tech-craze tends to lack the

‘membership of the culture’, as Scannell points out.

(Morley, 2000:109) Nevertheless, all these innovations do

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not only serve the purpose to give young people a

simplified opportunity to chat but also offer businesses

new ways of contacting clients, to interview

international applicants and hold global conferences

online.

These activities also manage to affect our conception

of time, allowing us to cross borders and time zones

without interference. Roger Silverstone, as Johanna

Sumiala mentions in “Media and Ritual: Death, Community,

and Everyday Life”, stated that one of the key functions

of such innovations is to structure and assemble time:

Thanks to Skype or Facetime we can celebrate festivities,

such as birthdays or other celebrations, with family and

friends, who might be miles apart. (Sumiala, 2013:63-64)

Without actual physical presence we can attend important

events and maintain global connectivities by partaking in

social rituals. On top of that, Skype and most of the

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popular messengers are currently cost-free, breaking a

vital constraint in media and allowing anyone, given the

access to the Internet and a computer, the chance to

benefit from these diverse mediums. The fact that the

access to virtual communication is fairly inexpensive and

does not affect the quality of the conversation itself,

is one of the arguments of Daniel Miller in “Tales from

Facebook”, in which he refers back to the concept of

polymedia. (Miller, 2013:176)

The term polymedia is related to the theory of

communication mediums serving as a ritual that reconnects

and holds bonds together, which was coined by Mirca

Madianou and Daniel Miller. In their research,

‘polymedia’ is used as an example to explain how

Philippine mothers stay in touch with their children, who

were left at home. (Madianou et al 2012:7) With

constantly changing technologies and innovations it is

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rather difficult to evaluate the impact of these

technologies for a longer period of time. Thus, Madianou

chose the term ‘polymedia’ (originating from the Latin

word ‘poly’ meaning ‘many’) since new developments and

more efficient opportunities arise. To identify a

ritualization process three conditions have to be

fulfilled that consist of the ability to pay for the

hardware, achieving a certain extent of media literacy,

as well as a shift to the appropriate infrastructure.

(Madianou et al 2012:126) Although these criteria are

predominantly fulfilled by the Western world, online

communication is far spread and even countries, which

might have joined the network only recently, can benefit

from the electronic landscape. David Morely mentions in

“Home Territories”, how the household boundaries start to

transgress through the broader social experience that has

been enhanced through these mediums. (Morley 2000:3)

Webcam-based mediums, such as Skype or Facetime, add a

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certain level of realism to the conversation allowing the

transmission of both sound and vision, which turns the

experience into an interactive ritual. Through this

process, as Madianou and Miller mention, people obtain

the ability to create a repertoire of emotions, which are

transmitted electronically through facial expressions,

tone of voice, certain gestures or even contextualised

messages. (Madianou et al 2012:132-4) Therefore, the

World Wide Web is not only one of many wonders of

technology but rather a socio-technical system that is

‘run’ by millions of human actors, social norms and

structures, as well as regulations that need to be

respected in order to maintain the social context the

Internet is positioned in.

Tova Benski and Eran Fisher compared this ritualised

concept to the mass media, which on the same basis,

cannot be understood outside the framework of a mass

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society and the political system it is built around.

(Benski et al 2013:4) The social aspect, or rather the

emotional engagement in online conversations has become a

crucial point in media research. Whether parents stay in

touch with their children, two people participate in

online-dating or friends from high-school reconnect,

online communication is not only ritualised in the sense

of setting a ‘talk time’, get updates or go through the

process of getting to know each other but also to

transmit this ‘emotional energy’. Sociologist Randall

Collins coined this term to extend Emilé Durkheim’s

analysis of the ritual and emotion in social experience

and positions the idea into a virtual space. (Benski et

al 2013:33-34) Collins compares the theory of an

interactive ritual, also called ‘Interaction Ritual

Theory’, to the physical social world, in which similarly

emotional energy is transferred. Users, or communication

participants, tend to long for a memorializing process,

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as mentioned by Collins that is induced by the use of

symbols and their symbolic power, which I will elucidate

in further context later on. (Benski et al 2013:34-35)

Erving Goffman used ‘interaction ritual’ to explain the

notion of ritualization. Based on his studies,

ritualization can lead users to iconify a medium, in this

case the computer or in a wider sense the screen itself.

The interaction becomes a ritual substitute, or even

‘analogue’ as Goffman indicates, and is interpreted as a

personal or human interaction with the medium and

subsequently with the person of interest on the other

side of the screen. (Grimes 2006:6) What may be perceived

as a simple device to communicate and share information

is actually a form of ritual that “may contain media and

media devices”, as Ronald L. Grimes noticed. (Grimes

2006:6) In this sense the image of a ritual as ‘old and

traditional’ can sometimes be surprising when the

similarities in the latest technological developments

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turn out to be quite obvious. One of the most

recognizable parallels is the idea of ‘repetition’

leading to emotional associations and an action followed

by another action and so on. Media theorist and cultural

critic Vivian Sobchack describes the repetitive process

as something ‘nostalgic’: “it is oriented toward the

past, and what has been done before that ought to be done

again”. (Grimes 2006:8) This idea can be applied to

online conversations in terms of the ‘rituals’ we go

through in each session. These may vary depending on the

person we talk to: intentionally people act differently

and successively go through alternate scenarios when

talking to a mother, a good friend from school or even an

authority figure, for example in an online job interview.

Before taking a closer look at the symbolic power

that is involved in the ritualised online communication I

want to delve a bit further into the aspect of emotion

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and the emotional energy that emanates from these

rituals. Randall Collins argued how the emotional energy

serves as the driving motivation towards the interaction

in online communication and serves as the core element

that holds social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter,

together. (Grimes 2006:34-35) With his theory, Collins is

directly extending the idea of Emilé Durkheim’s analysis

of emotion and ritual in a social context as well as

Goffman’s idea of the IR (= interaction ritual). The use

of moving images to communicate or share information with

someone has changed the essence of virtual interaction.

As Collins describes, an interaction ritual consists of

four crucial components: these are namely the “physical

co-presence”, a “common focus of attention”, a “shared

emotional mood”, and last but not least a “boundary to

outsiders”. (Benski et al, 2013:35) All these ingredients

can be found in virtual communications, especially a

simple Skype call that asks for the attention and

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emotional collaboration of both participants and demands

users, who talk in an intimate area disclosed from

unwanted ‘others’ – given the fact that it is a proper

conversation. But how do people convey emotions in a

virtual realm without an actual physical confrontation?

According to Randall Collins, a ritual is meant to be a

bodily process, meaning that humans gather in the same

place to initiate the ritual process. Although some

occasions might lose meaning or could pose an ethical

problem, it is still possible to transmit emotions – or

emotional energy – through virtual spaces, such as the

Internet or even television. (Collins 2004:54) With the

implementation of webcams in chat conversations, users

have the ability to achieve a stronger effect in talking

to loved ones rather than a mere phone call or a text

message. The combination of picture and sound imitates

this missing ‘bodily presence’ and allows both sides to

read body signals, expressions, get into a shared rhythm,

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and achieve a focus of attention. Collins calls the

arrangement of these fragments a “state of

intersubjectivity”. (Collins 2004:64) All participants

become mutually attuned and an interchange of emotional

energy can be established. Noteworthy is also

anthropologist Victor Turner’s idea of rituals as ‘social

dramas’ that “give form to conflicts and the dominant

values holding a group together”. By social dramas,

Turner describes performances, in this case in a virtual

space, that enable us to speak through the use of moving

images that are created the use of webcams or phones. Ken

Hillis expands this idea in his book “Online a Lot of the

Time” and places the idea in networked rituals. (Hillis

2009:55) The performers in this ‘social drama’, namely

the participants, share their own experiences with the

user on the other side of the screen, which does not

necessarily have to be with one single person. The

missing actual physical presence can function as a

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respectably easier way to deal with certain situations

for that some people might be too self-conscious to cope

with in reality. Ken Hillis mentions the use of a virtual

environment to negotiate loss or personal issues by

engaging in “ritualized displays of visibility”. (Hillis

2009:56) By avoiding direct confrontation it is easier to

inform family, friends or communities about a problem and

consequently seek help. Michael Mandiberg brings up a

great example in “The Social Media Reader”, regarding an

HIV patient, who used to share his condition and feelings

through blogging and thus gave his friends and family the

possibility to ask him about his well being without

asking him face-to-face. (Mandiberg 2012:75) This idea

has moved on to other platforms over the years with the

development of new technologies and a growing social

affordance, which means more and more of our senses are

involved in online communication.

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Even on video broadcasting websites, such as YouTube,

users share their stories and testimonials to cope with

the changes they were initially afraid of, by facing the

problem passively, meaning on a ‘virtual’ level with a

real audience. Before the video broadcast, blogging

served a similar purpose, allowing writers to get their

thoughts, ideas or issues out there and have millions of

other people, even strangers, engage on a textual level.

Obviously this method still exists but is nowadays more

likely to be replaced due to the fact that visual images

open up new ways of expressing oneself and allows one a

clearer visualisation of emotions. According to David

Morley, author of “Home Territories”, these new

technologies assist us in transgressing boundaries and

open the public world to the private, facilitating a

greater involvement in the social world. (Morley 2000:3)

Displaying oneself in front of an unknown audience gives

strangers the opportunity to take part in our life –

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which can be either a blessing or a curse. Assuming

former, it would correlate with Durkheim’s idea of

rituals bringing the people closer together, forming new

bonds while strengthening the community in general.

Referring back to the example of Skype and mediums alike,

the visual display gives friends and families the chance

to have reassurance of the person’s current state and the

ability to read emotions easier. Through such practises,

according to Randall Collins, so-called ritual groups

come together, who focus their attention on a mutual

topic, share a common mood and show respect towards the

other participants. (Collins 2004:109) These ritual

groups differentiate each other according to the people

involved.

The idea of a ‘ritual group’ was inspired by Emilé

Durkheim’s notion of a ritual solidarity, meaning that

the conversation may either have a high or low level of

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solidarity. Whereas conversations with close people most

likely stem from a positive level of solidarity, rituals

that involve people we might not be familiar with could

harbour a person that is less attached to the group’s

purpose and spirit. On the other hand, symbolic rites

that hold the group together and thus prevent disorder,

manage to avoid negative solidarity. (Collins 2004:109)

To exemplify these situations, it might be more useful to

take a look at YouTube broadcasts, rather than Skype

conversations. Just lately, Felix Arvid Ulf, also known

under the pseudonym “PewDiePie” on aforementioned

website, reached the highest number of subscribers (over

20 million) worldwide. To give a quick insight on what

Felix A. Ulf does: he simply films himself playing video

games and adds witty comments to share his gameplay

experience. One of the reasons Felix was able to

accumulate such a vast amount of fans, is the resilient

group solidarity he managed to build through symbolic

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power. Tova Benski and Eran Fisher analysed Collins’

theory and came to the conclusion that the ‘emotional

energy’ that is transmitted provides members of the

‘ritual group’ with a sense of belonging and strengthens

the forged emotional bonds. (Benski et al 2013:33-34) All

participants, who in our example would be represented by

the subscribers, share the emotionally energized feeling

that is created through the mentioned symbolic power

Felix’s videos are charged with. Already little aspects,

such as the same greeting at the beginning of each video,

a certain catchphrase, sounds and, questions to the

viewer assist in recalling the memorized positive

feelings. (Benski et al 2013:33-34) Despite the fact

that, once again, there is no physical presence involved,

there is still a level of social connection going on,

which has been invoked by the symbolic actions Felix uses

throughout his videos. To the surprise of many, he was

able to surpass celebrities and their music channels or

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viral videos that benefit on a short-term basis, with an

often-overlooked genre. What Felix does, is a great

example for Couldry’s concept of liveness in that the

person in the video is separated in space from its

audience but experiences a so-called co-presence. The

performer is not actually encountering his audience

physically but rather on a social level. (Frei 2013:36)

Through the technological features of YouTube, and the

use of live image transmission, has been enhanced and

offers the performer the chance to influence his

presentation. The genre I decided to look at on YouTube

takes specifically advantage of these extras.

The fact that video games have become the most

popular genre on YouTube is quite fascinating,

considering the fact that gaming has been the target of

news with its “violence praising” ideologies in the last

few years. These so-called gameplay videos, in which a

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person plays through a specific game while adding live

commentary, have undergone their own ritualising process.

Charlotte Townsend-Gault draws upon the theories of

Goffman and Turner, who argue that the participants, or

in this case users, themselves attempt to show an

audience what they can do. (Townsend-Gault 1992:53) With

the involvement of an audience, the ritual becomes

additionally a social process with an act of cultural

input, in this case the formerly rare genre of video

games. What has been considered ‘profane’, taking

Durkheim’s argument in consideration, has been able to

gain popularity through this platform and thus is more

and more considered a ‘sacred’ category; taking into

account the negative media presence of video games.

According to Emilé Durkheim, rituals, in this case so-

called ‘gaming vlogs’, enact the idea of the sacred and

enable its participants to identify with an immense

community. (Hillis 2009:50) Since rituals are more

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prominently found online, they have been able to move

from the profane to the sacred and managed to be

recognized as a legitimate form of entertainment and

community. To maintain this status though, the video

creators of these gameplay videos have to keep a vital

element in mind: as ‘social actors’, continuous action is

required. James E. Katz and Mark A. Aakhus describe this

idea with the term “Apparatgeist”, meaning a perpetual

action and contact is demanded. (Vincent et al 2009:85)

Due to the broadcasters performance the viewers partake

in this ritual and are simultaneously in an interpersonal

connection with the YouTuber1. Online broadcasting

websites, as Nick Couldry points out in “Media, Society,

World”, are without a surprise the leading commercial

media players thanks to the easily modified content and

the possibility to share videos on a global range.

(Couldry 2013:73) Some may criticise the change of the

content after the ritual has become a sacred act:1 The person creating mentioned videos

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Particularly on YouTube, channels tend to become more

commercialised after a successful breakthrough and start

to flood the viewer with advertisements within their

videos or prompting them constantly to subscribe and

share the content on social networks as much as possible.

This might indicate a possible turn of events, by

changing the sacred to the profane and vice versa.

Subscribers might not take the changes lightly and decide

to unsubscribe or prefer other users, depending on the

change of interaction and whether the earlier mentioned

“Apparatgeist” can be maintained on a continuous basis2.

In conclusion, the virtual space has proven itself as

a worthy medium for ritualised actions, especially used

as a communication device. Skype and Facetime give a

great example for its use to reconnect with family and

friends through the transfer of emotions and interactive

rituals on a non-physical level. The future certainly2 given the fact that the user wishes to continue;

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holds further developments and innovations that might

offer a range of new possibilities to communicate and

allow for new ritualised actions that may give us

different perspectives on the world of online

communication. YouTube itself has already managed to

create solidarity amongst the users and is based on the

idea of liveness. Through the mentioned co-presence in

Nick Couldry’s studies, people who might be an introvert

in real life could then express their hidden personality

via a mediated platform, such as YouTube.

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Bibliography

Benski T., Fisher E. (2013), “Internet and Emotions”, Routledge:

London

Bräuchler B., Postil J. (2010), “Theorising Media and Practice”,

Berghahn Books: New York

Collins R. (2004), “Interaction Ritual Chains”, Princeton University

Press: New Jersey

Couldry N. (2013), “Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media

Practice”, Polity Press: Cambridge

Frei B. (2013), “Sociality Revisited?: The Use of the Internet and Mobile

Phones in Urban Cameroon”, Langaa Research & Publishing: Mankon

Grimes R., Husken U. et al (2011), “Ritual, Media, and Conflict”,

Oxford University Press: Oxford

Guan Y. (2010), “Media, Culture and Society in Malaysia”, Routledge:

London

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Hillis K. (2009), “Online a Lot of the Time: Ritual, Fetish, Sign”, Duke

University Press: Durham

Madianou M., Miller D. (2012), “Migration and New Media:

Transnational Families and Polymedia”, Routledge: London

Mandiberg M. (2012), “The Social Media Reader”, NYU Press: New

York

Miller D. (2013), “Tales from Facebook”, Polity Press: Cambridge

Morley D. (2003), “Television, Audiences and Cultural Studies”,

Routledge: London

Neustaedter C., Harrison S. (2013), “Connecting Families: The Impact

of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life”, Springer: London

Sumiala J. (2013), “Media and Ritual: Death, Community, and Everyday

Life”, Routledge: London

Townsend-Gault C. (1992), “Ritualizing Ritual’s Rituals”, Art Journal

New York, pp. 51

Example used:

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

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