Mark R Johnson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3857660 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark R Johnson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark R |
| FAMILY NAME | Johnson |
| SIGNATURE | JOHNSON M R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southern California |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1096-9918 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Play to Submission
Frictions and flows in Twitch’s platform economy
In this article we introduce 'capital flow' and 'capital friction' as terms that characterize features and user behaviours on internet platforms which encourage and discourage spending, respectively. We explore these via leading live streaming platform Twitch, where numerous platform features and normative behaviours both promote and downplay spending. This makes it an ideal site for understanding conflicting economic and social platform dynamics…
Smartphone GPS-Based Exposure to Greenspace and Walkability and Accelerometer-Assessed Physical Activity During Pregnancy and Early Postpartum—Evidence from the Madres Cohort
A growing number of studies have associated walkability and greenspace exposure with greater physical activity (PA) in women during pregnancy. However, most studies have focused on examining women's residential environments and neglected exposure in locations outside the home neighborhood. Using 350 person-days (N = 55 participants) of smartphone global positioning system (GPS) location and accelerometer data collected during the first and third …
Association of Breastfeeding Duration with 12-Month Postpartum Blood Lipids in a Predominately Lower-Income Hispanic Pregnancy Cohort in Los Angeles
Breastfeeding may protect women’s long-term cardiovascular health; however, breastfeeding-related postpartum lipid changes remain unclear. We aim to examine associations of breastfeeding duration with maternal lipids at 12 months postpartum. In a subsample (n = 79) of the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) cohort, breastfeeding status and duration at 3, 6, and 12 months postpartum were self-reported.…
Prenatal Maternal Cortisol Levels and Infant Birth Weight in a Predominately Low-Income Hispanic Cohort
Infant birth weight influences numerous health outcomes throughout the life course including childhood obesity and metabolic morbidities. Maternal experience of stress, both before and during pregnancy, has been hypothesized to influence fetal growth and birth outcomes. However, these associations currently are not fully understood, due to conflicting results in the published literature. Salivary cortisol is often used as a biological biomarker t…
‘It’s like the gold rush’
This paper explores the lives and careers of video game live broadcasters, especially those who gain their primary real-world income through this practice. We introduce the dominant market leader – the platform Twitch.tv – and outline its immensely rapid growth and the communities of millions of broadcasters, and tens of millions of viewers, it now boasts. Drawing on original interview data with professional and aspiring-professional game broadca…
Inclusion and exclusion in the digital economy
In this paper I explore economic and inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities and mental health issues afforded by ‘live streaming’ ‒ the live broadcast of one’s activities over the internet to a globally dispersed audience. In both 2016 and 2017, the leading live streaming platform Twitch.tv broadcast over 500,000 years of video, which were produced by over two million regular broadcasters (‘streamers’), and consumed by an audience o…
The Unpredictability of Gameplay
The Unpredictability of Gameplay explores the many forms of unpredictability in games and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding and categorizing non-deterministic game mechanics. Rather than viewing all game mechanics with unpredictable outcomes as a single concept, Mark R. Johnson develops a three-part typology for such mechanics, distinguishing between randomness, chance, and luck in gameplay, assessing games that ran…
The imperative to be seen
In this paper we examine the pursuit of celebrity through the live broadcast (‘streaming’) of video games as an expression of an emerging moral economy of contemporary digital capitalism. Live streaming is a novel form overwhelmingly found amongst young people disproportionately harmed by the economic crisis, and we propose that the contraction of employment opportunities is giving rise to a strong imperative to be seen, which finds an outlet in …
Co-creating videogames
John Banks’ Co-creating videogames examines creative work that takes place across, between and through networks of professionals and amateurs, focused on this practice in the context of videogame d
How to talk about videogames
Gamification
Gamification' is understood as the application of game systems - competition, rewards, quantifying player/user behaviour - into non-game domains, such as work, productivity and fitness. Such practices are deeply problematic as they represent the capture of 'play' in the pursuit of neoliberal rationalization and the managerial optimization of working life and labour. However, applying games and play to social life is also central to the Situationi…
Gods in and of the machine
‘Playing with Religion in Digital Games’ is a collection of essays exploring the relationships between religion and video games, and the sociological and critical relevance of conceptualising these
Fighting games and Go
This paper examines the varied cultural meanings of computer game play in competitive and professional computer gaming and live-streaming. To do so it riffs off Andrew Feenberg's 1994 work exploring the changing meanings of the ancient board game of Go in mid-century Japan. We argue that whereas Go saw a de-aestheticization with the growth of newspaper reporting and a new breed of 'westernized' player, the rise of professionalized computer gamepl…
New technological localisms
The following paper is concerned with elucidating an account of forms of new localism as they relate to the concept of 'habitele', a conceptual framework that helps us understand new forms of relatedness in the digitally mediated world. In doing this it will also reflect back on the concept and draw out as yet unconsidered elements based upon issues of fluidity,mobility, and what we will call 'distal-locals'. The paper is centred around two case …
Material Participation
Noortje Marres, Material Participation: Technology, the Environment and Everyday Publics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 216 pp., ISBN 978-0230232112 (hbk), £55.00. In her book Material Pa
Locally complete path independent choice functions and their lattices
Gamification
Gamification' is understood as the application of game systems - competition, rewards, quantifying player/user behaviour - into non-game domains, such as work, productivity and fitness. Such practices are deeply problematic as they represent the capture of 'play' in the pursuit of neoliberal rationalization and the managerial optimization of working life and labour. However, applying games and play to social life is also central to the Situationi…
Fighting games and Go
This paper examines the varied cultural meanings of computer game play in competitive and professional computer gaming and live-streaming. To do so it riffs off Andrew Feenberg's 1994 work exploring the changing meanings of the ancient board game of Go in mid-century Japan. We argue that whereas Go saw a de-aestheticization with the growth of newspaper reporting and a new breed of 'westernized' player, the rise of professionalized computer gamepl…
Material Participation
Noortje Marres, Material Participation: Technology, the Environment and Everyday Publics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 216 pp., ISBN 978-0230232112 (hbk), £55.00. In her book Material Pa
Locally complete path independent choice functions and their lattices
Locally complete path independent choice functions and their lattices
Material Participation
Noortje Marres, Material Participation: Technology, the Environment and Everyday Publics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 216 pp., ISBN 978-0230232112 (hbk), £55.00. In her book Material Pa
New technological localisms
The following paper is concerned with elucidating an account of forms of new localism as they relate to the concept of 'habitele', a conceptual framework that helps us understand new forms of relatedness in the digitally mediated world. In doing this it will also reflect back on the concept and draw out as yet unconsidered elements based upon issues of fluidity,mobility, and what we will call 'distal-locals'. The paper is centred around two case …
Gods in and of the machine
‘Playing with Religion in Digital Games’ is a collection of essays exploring the relationships between religion and video games, and the sociological and critical relevance of conceptualising these
Fighting games and Go
This paper examines the varied cultural meanings of computer game play in competitive and professional computer gaming and live-streaming. To do so it riffs off Andrew Feenberg's 1994 work exploring the changing meanings of the ancient board game of Go in mid-century Japan. We argue that whereas Go saw a de-aestheticization with the growth of newspaper reporting and a new breed of 'westernized' player, the rise of professionalized computer gamepl…
Co-creating videogames
John Banks’ Co-creating videogames examines creative work that takes place across, between and through networks of professionals and amateurs, focused on this practice in the context of videogame d
How to talk about videogames
Gamification
Gamification' is understood as the application of game systems - competition, rewards, quantifying player/user behaviour - into non-game domains, such as work, productivity and fitness. Such practices are deeply problematic as they represent the capture of 'play' in the pursuit of neoliberal rationalization and the managerial optimization of working life and labour. However, applying games and play to social life is also central to the Situationi…
‘It’s like the gold rush’
This paper explores the lives and careers of video game live broadcasters, especially those who gain their primary real-world income through this practice. We introduce the dominant market leader – the platform Twitch.tv – and outline its immensely rapid growth and the communities of millions of broadcasters, and tens of millions of viewers, it now boasts. Drawing on original interview data with professional and aspiring-professional game broadca…
Inclusion and exclusion in the digital economy
In this paper I explore economic and inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities and mental health issues afforded by ‘live streaming’ ‒ the live broadcast of one’s activities over the internet to a globally dispersed audience. In both 2016 and 2017, the leading live streaming platform Twitch.tv broadcast over 500,000 years of video, which were produced by over two million regular broadcasters (‘streamers’), and consumed by an audience o…
The Unpredictability of Gameplay
The Unpredictability of Gameplay explores the many forms of unpredictability in games and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding and categorizing non-deterministic game mechanics. Rather than viewing all game mechanics with unpredictable outcomes as a single concept, Mark R. Johnson develops a three-part typology for such mechanics, distinguishing between randomness, chance, and luck in gameplay, assessing games that ran…
The imperative to be seen
In this paper we examine the pursuit of celebrity through the live broadcast (‘streaming’) of video games as an expression of an emerging moral economy of contemporary digital capitalism. Live streaming is a novel form overwhelmingly found amongst young people disproportionately harmed by the economic crisis, and we propose that the contraction of employment opportunities is giving rise to a strong imperative to be seen, which finds an outlet in …
Prenatal Maternal Cortisol Levels and Infant Birth Weight in a Predominately Low-Income Hispanic Cohort
Infant birth weight influences numerous health outcomes throughout the life course including childhood obesity and metabolic morbidities. Maternal experience of stress, both before and during pregnancy, has been hypothesized to influence fetal growth and birth outcomes. However, these associations currently are not fully understood, due to conflicting results in the published literature. Salivary cortisol is often used as a biological biomarker t…
Association of Breastfeeding Duration with 12-Month Postpartum Blood Lipids in a Predominately Lower-Income Hispanic Pregnancy Cohort in Los Angeles
Breastfeeding may protect women’s long-term cardiovascular health; however, breastfeeding-related postpartum lipid changes remain unclear. We aim to examine associations of breastfeeding duration with maternal lipids at 12 months postpartum. In a subsample (n = 79) of the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) cohort, breastfeeding status and duration at 3, 6, and 12 months postpartum were self-reported.…
Frictions and flows in Twitch’s platform economy
In this article we introduce 'capital flow' and 'capital friction' as terms that characterize features and user behaviours on internet platforms which encourage and discourage spending, respectively. We explore these via leading live streaming platform Twitch, where numerous platform features and normative behaviours both promote and downplay spending. This makes it an ideal site for understanding conflicting economic and social platform dynamics…
Smartphone GPS-Based Exposure to Greenspace and Walkability and Accelerometer-Assessed Physical Activity During Pregnancy and Early Postpartum—Evidence from the Madres Cohort
A growing number of studies have associated walkability and greenspace exposure with greater physical activity (PA) in women during pregnancy. However, most studies have focused on examining women's residential environments and neglected exposure in locations outside the home neighborhood. Using 350 person-days (N = 55 participants) of smartphone global positioning system (GPS) location and accelerometer data collected during the first and third …
Play to Submission
Computer Science (10 works) · Digital Games and Media (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Political science (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Multimedia (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Public relations (4 works)