My research into the Critter community and their interactions with the cast will be autoethnographic, using participant observation and my own personal engagement with other fans. This is because, in fandom communities like this, there are multiple conflicting perspectives on whether or not what the viewers perceive is more important than what was intended by the cast members. The identity of the individual – especially race, gender, and sexuality – very much shapes how they react to the text. By exploring, engaging, and examining the community and content through my own eyes, the insight I gain will be unique to this current year, the platforms I use, the sides of the fandom I touch, and my own perspectives.
Each fan, including myself, has preconceived notions about each cast member based off of what we infer and perceive from their personas: Sam Riegel is real life comic relief; Travis Willingham is quiet, precise, and organised; Taliesin Jaffe is incredibly knowledgeable about seemingly everything. A persona is a “presented public self that goes beyond our past notions of public personality or celebrity and become an elemental part of literally billions of people worldwide” (Marshall, Barbour, and Moore 2020). What I see of them is not the whole identities of these people, just pieces that they allow their audience to see.
Below, I’ve attempted to map out the field site of the fandom. I’m not entirely sure if this is a correct use of mapping and will need to further research field mapping online spaces.
My general timeline is as follows:
WEEK 5: Immersion in fandom + notetaking
WEEK 6: Immersion in fandom + notetaking
WEEK 7: Immersion in fandom + notetaking
WEEK 8: Immersion in fandom + notetaking
WEEK 9: Summarise them into topics
MID SESSION RECESS: Create one topic video in time for beta
WEEK 10: Beta Due
Utter Omnishambles 
Hey Daniel, this niche sounds really interesting! In your video, you are extensive in describing the aspects of your niche such as where the content is present (YouTube and Twitch) and when this is available for users. I found it valuable that you explained the term ‘parasocial relationships’ because this shows you know this well and it also allows your audience or people who don’t understand the niche to follow along easily. You are clear in defining HOW your process will work by establishing that fans are predominantly interacting on Twitter and Reddit and also working out how you will display your information with your videos. Your blog explains the conflicting perspectives within the space well which will make it more interesting for you to explore. Your field site is also good (you should have more confidence in your abilities (: ) as it shows the interconnectedness of the different aspects of the niche. Well done!!
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This link shares some perspective on collaborations between fans and performers because of blurred lines of fan and author production which relates to Chris’ lecture on ethics where he describes fans being collaborators and not participants which blurs some ethical lines. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/983446/1/Hope_MA_S2018.pdf
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Hey Daniel! I really enjoyed your pitch because I’ve never heard of your media niche before, so it was good to be able to learn about something new, and I think you explained it in a really clear and concise way! You spoke really clearly and explained your niche very well, but I think you could have spoken a little more in depth about the details of your project and what your digital artefact is going to consist of. This might sound a bit obvious, but when conducting your research don’t forget to use the central website for your niche- https://critrole.com/, I feel like sometimes we can skim past the obvious resources!
Your weekly schedule could have been a bit more detailed, but you still outlined the main point of each week which is the most important thing. A few more sources could have been helpful as well but overall, I think this is a great pitch and I’m eager to learn more about your media niche and digital artefact!
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Hey Dan
Critical Role! I’m not the biggest fan of them but I have definitely enjoyed the few I’ve watched. You did a great in depth explanation of the niche and some of the aspects of its community, parasocial relationships are interesting, I’d say it’s definitely worth exploring in one of your short videos. Great to see you have a weekly timeline too, as mentioned in other comments it would be great to see a little more explanation in future videos, beta or contextual report, have a look at these areas
-ethical issues surrounding this DA (will usernames of community members be shown? How will you conduct yourself when interacting with this community?)
-Problematizing (pose a question that will be explored throughout the production process, for example “What drives critical role community members to cosplay and form parasocial relationships with these creators? How has critical role stood out from similar D&D yt channels, etc.) centering your research around particular problem is a good way of narrowing/focusing your research
-Make sure you also explain to concept of autoethnography in further posts( A method of ethnography that involves the writer becoming an active participant in their researched community/culture)
Your pitch has intrigued me to explore critical role myself, definitely a interesting and worthwhile topic, cant wait to see what form this DA takes!
all the best, jordan
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