Watching it unfold: the creative economies of live-streamed extreme events (Simon Dickinson, University of Plymouth)

This seminar examines how creative live digital content mediates encounters with extreme weather and hazard events. Across platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Discord, content creators increasingly act as interpreters, curators and performers of unfolding crises. They translate complex event dynamics into accessible and affectively engaging narratives. In doing so, they shape not only how events are understood, but also how audiences participate in them. Drawing on a digital ethnography of extreme weather events during 2025-2026 as a part of a UKRI project, Watching it Unfold, the seminar explores how these engagements are increasingly organised through monetised mechanisms – including paid message systems, micro-donations and personalised risk- information services. These practices represent an emerging form of monetised anticipation, in which the interpretation of risk, preparedness advice and event commentary become revenue-generating activities. By examining the intersections of liveness, attention and monetisation, the talk highlights how contemporary hazard communication is being reshaped within platform economies. It raises important questions about authority and the commercialisation of risk in digitally mediated environments