Abstract
This research addresses live streams on social media platforms and the concept of immediacy. Live streams are characterized by their liveness because they are transmitted and viewed in real time, presenting a substantial degree of immediacy. The immediacy offered by live streams on social media is the result of live streams’ specific temporality and interactivity. Temporality refers to the relationship between time and various media forms, such as photography, film, television, and livestreams. Interactivity refers to the features on social media which invite interactions between social media users and digital media. Perceived immediacy is subject to the immersional circumstances of social media users. Using a series of weekly religious services live-streamed on Facebook as a case study, this research explores how one community transitioned from in-person gatherings to digital gatherings under the unprecedented circumstances produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It asserts that these circumstances heightened the immediacy displayed by the livestreams and perceived by their viewers. It explores the paradoxical situation produced by the COVID-19 pandemic: one wherein an intuitive understanding of community and life as antithetical to isolation and death was overturned. Because of COVID-19, the physical gathering of communities could cause deaths, and the physical isolation of individuals could save lives. Within this context, social media offered a virtual semblance of life and community.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Community, Social Media, Immediacy, Community, Live stream, COVID-19
