“From gaming to journalism” – Twitch’s benefits for journalists

Twitch, a video live-streaming platform known for its gaming community, isn’t the most obvious place for journalism. Still, as social platforms have become the dominant place for young people to consume news, some news publishers have found success there.

Reporter Emilio Doménech López, known as Nanisimo, shared his experience working with Twitch as a journalist at the News Impact Summit: The Future of Editorial, a conference held in Prague in October 2022.

The Fix picked key points from López’s presentation, in which he shared Twitch tips for journalists based on his experience covering major topics like the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election in the United States, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for Spanish media outlet Newtral.

Communication with the audience

Chat is one of the main pillars of Twitch, and that’s how a journalist can communicate with the audience at the moment. It allows the creator to interact with viewers and sometimes even get new ideas from comments. In addition, subscribers can participate in journalists’ investigations during the stream. One of the ways to include users is to ask them.

While  López was checking a video from George Floyd’s protests, the main thing was to find the right location. When analyzing the original on YouTube, one viewer suggested looking at the location in Instagram stories from the protest. There were stories from that specific place from the last 24 hours. It allowed verifying that protests were real. That is how due to communication with the audience López found a way to check up on the truth. 

Another case was on the eve of the full-scale war in Ukraine. A few hours before Russia’s invasion López went live. The viewers could see on Google Maps that roads going from Russia to Ukraine are completely red, marking traffic. There were soldiers checking their social media. That’s how people understood that Russian troops were built up near the border and they were getting ready to encroach on the country.

Honesty is an important part of journalism on Twitch. The reporter needs to create a strong bond with the community to earn their trust and respect. You do fact-checking together with people, and they know whether the journalist is sincere and clear in their relations with the subscribers. The fact that viewers see live reactions to the news makes it real – as opposed to legacy media. 

Easy production

Creating a professional video for news media demands a group of several people. A journalist streaming on Twitch doesn’t need a lot of resources to start a live stream. “You can go live at whatever moment. I have my microphone, a camera with a tripod, a computer, and lights – that’s all I need to go live”, López says.

The fact that streams are heavily produced is one of the assets of this platform. It allows independent journalists and beginners to start their channels and careers without special expensive tools or teams. 

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Monetisation

Twitch has an important feature for journalists – the way you can monetize your content. “You link your AmazonPrime account to Twitch, and when the connection is established you can give your subscription to one streamer”, López says. This means that the streamer is getting around 2.5 euros per subscription.

Video creators can put ads in their streaming and get a sponsorship that fits with the values of the channel. That way, activity on the Twitch channel brings income to the creator and makes the project financially possible.