analysing-schlatt-18015346mmu

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Introduction to JSchlatt

Welcome to my blog “Analysing Schlatt”. This is an academic blog that analyses the key influencer of my choice, JSchlatt, and how they use their social media pages to get support and followers behind them.

The reason JSchlatt has become the focus of this blog is due to the fact he has become a large-scale influencer who has continuously been growing through the last few months of 2020. His behaviour and reactions online link in with the theories chosen to accompany this essay. These theories include “The Presentation of Self” by Goffman and “Public Sphere” by Habermas. As well as this, that his background and way he has risen to fame have been included to further explain his influence over different types of audiences. He has become a popular name within the online world with different personas and different behaviours than conventional influencers, which is why he has become the subject of this essay.

Who Is JSchlatt?

JSchlatt is a 21-year-old YouTuber and creator who makes all sorts of different content, such as Minecraft videos, Wii videos and skits with his groups “Lunch Club” and “Dream SMP”. His start, however, was completely different to his current content. “He created his channel on July 6, 2013, and uploaded his first video on June 6, 2014, titled "good boy eats food". This video features his pet at the time, a bearded dragon, eating food.”  (Wikitubia, 2019)

After the creation of his channel and his further uploads, he began working on his content. He started out with his “A Tribute To “series, which would be a look back on his favourite pieces of media. Time after time, he would change up his content, with early Minecraft videos and video essays taking form. However, his main start up to fame was joining some “SMPLive” streams.

How did they become known?

JSchlatt is an obscure key influencer. Overall, he has 1.2M Twitter followers and 1.53M Youtube subscribers. He is known to have an audience of mainly mature followers, but quite a few younger audience members. He has collaborated with other channels, and bigger influencers, giving him that status of an influencer to many others. He gained fame through others and by playing certain video games, also participating in vlogs and outings with his friends. His exploits included a streamer named CallMeCarson, both having amassed a wide following, but with Carson currently being investigated by police and having controversy they have been distant. They were usually seen playing strange games together, but often with others included to make it like a party game channel. JSchlatt has a few different social media he uses constantly, such as his infamous twitter and YouTube channels. As well as this, he is featured on other people’s twitch, as he barely streams on his own channel. However, he is active on the platform.  

Many of the videos on his Twitch and YouTube are from “SMPLive”, a streamer-only Minecraft world that was set up by “CallMeCarson”, an ex-friend of Schlatt’s. He started developing different persona’s, with the one on this server being of a scammer who swindled people out of money for his cryptocurrency “Schlattcoin”. This provided entertainment to those who watched, seeing how he could swindle the others. He is most known for playing both Carson and new Minecraft streamers Dream, GeorgeNotFound, TommyInnit, SapNap and Tubbo. However, his twitter will be my focus of study with the preservation of self-study, and YouTube will be included within another study.

Who do they play with?

JSchlatt was known for mainly playing with “CallMeCarson”, and the small group of friends. His main group of friends were known as “Lunch Club”. Before this, they were known as “Goop Squad” and “GoopCast”, however “Due to trademark issues with the name “Goopcast,” it was later renamed to “Fart Club” temporarily and then officially renamed to “Lunch Club.”” (Wikitubia, 2020). The Lunch Club consisted of CallMeCarson, Slimecicle, Jschlatt, Traves, Ted Nivison, cscoop, and Hugbox. This group were known for streaming “You Laugh, You Lose” challenges and going out on adventures, making vlogs and skits.

However, recently he has been playing with “Dream” and “TommyInnit”, with Tommy being 6th top rated and 4th recently viewed on the top twitch streamers leader board. (TwitchTracker, 2020). He has become involved with many more Minecraft youtubers and streamers, expanding his horizons and going back to his roots. This is also due to ongoing controversy with CallMeCarson.

What is their current content like?

JSchlatt is currently being involved within the “DreamSMP”. The Dream SMP is made up of many members, totalling 39 including both guests and rumoured members (Pokiman3 and MrBeast). Just with these guests alone, we can assume that big names are Involved. KarlJacobs, Quackity, Vikkstar and LazarBeam are some of the well-known guests to this server, having frequented often and being invited into the videos and streams involved. This server has evolved through a story, with JSchlatt being part of one of the biggest events. Many animations have been created about this moment.

JSchlatt was involved in “Pogtopia”’s election, which was hosted by the SMP and voted upon by fans of the series. In this, he is shown to have a different personality and persona on compared to the one from SMPLive.

“The first decree Schlatt made as president of L'Manburg was to revoke the citizenship of both Wilbur and Tommy, followed by lower taxes (despite L'Manberg not having them) “(Dream Team Wiki. 2020)

In this, he became a tyrannical leader, much different compared to his personal YouTube’s content, which consists of him playing WII games. This evolved into many different wars and variations of Schlatt, with him developing personas. These personas would later become a staple to the way he behaves and interacts with many others within the public spheres of Twitter and Youtube, further expanding his reach within different audiences of different genres.JSchlatt was involved in “Pogtopia”’s election, which was hosted by the SMP and voted upon by fans of the series. In this, he is shown to have a different personality and persona on compared to the one from SMPLive. “The first decree Schlatt made as president of L'Manburg was to revoke the citizenship of both Wilbur and Tommy, followed by lower taxes (despite L'Manberg not having them)“  (Dream Team Wiki. 2020)

In this, he became a tyrannical leader, much different compared to his personal YouTube’s content, which consists of him playing WII games. This evolved into many different wars and variations of Schlatt, with him developing personas. These personas would later become a staple to the way he behaves and interacts with many others within the public spheres of Twitter and Youtube, further expanding his reach within different audiences of different genres.

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Background to JSchlatt

JSchlatt has his main media presence seen on Twitter and YouTube. These are seen through his YouTube videos from streams or group games he participated in (JSchlattLIVE) and his uploads on Twitter (@JSchlatt). Studying his twitter and YouTube for few years, I have seen how they get interactions from their fans, as well as how quickly their tweets and popularity grow.

The two theories I will be studying in relation to JSchlatt are “Presentation of Self” and “Public Sphere”. These two theories relate closely to the way JSchlatt presents himself online and will be the main arguments for how he is a key influencer. I have chosen to study these theories in relation to his presence on Twitter and YouTube, but also linking in cameo appearances in other people’s twitch streams.

With 1.7M YouTube subscribers and 1.4M Twitter followers, JSchlatt’s popularity hasn’t ceased, having become a meme all over the internet. He is, as of 06/01/2021, currently trending on TikTok with an audio of him playing a game named “Sub Rosa” with some of his friends from LunchClub.  This audio includes him running away from people trying to chase and kill him, and then encountering a man pretending to be Freddie Mercury.  The original has led to lots of mashups and remixes of the YouTuber’s popular video, spreading his fame further.

JSchlatt’s audience has become quite varied. He has three main types of audience members, all from different parts of his content.

One of his main audiences is the DreamSMP fanbase. This large fanbase flocked to his channel as soon as he was introduced in May. He gained a massive 99 thousand followers that month after starting in April 2019 and getting barely any followers each month. His character got a lot of people invested in the story of the DreamSMP and therefore lead to him having a successful career before his character’s death. His other main background is those who came from the LunchClub content before it’s departure. These people have stuck around to see how his content evolves as he went on from the LunchClub. They enjoy his quirky personality, more known as his backstage personality. This is when he is most genuine and is seen in this personality when playing games on his channel normally. Schlatt is still very young, being only 21 at the time of this essay. He has already made a name for himself and increased his follower count exponentially. He has continuous and steady growth after collaborations, and this does not seem to be ceasing. The fact that he has a large circle of influencers that are aware of him through games, memes and different forms of content shows just how charismatic and persuasive he can be to new audiences and people he meets.

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Methods

To study my influencer, I have chosen their main platforms that they present themselves on. The fist is his Twitter, where he posts brief updates but also interacts with most of his followers and other influencers. He sometimes known for interacting with those who follow him, but it depends on their comments. His other platform is YouTube. Known as JSchlattLIVE on the platform, he posts videos of him playing obscure games such as the WII Sports Resort game and barbie games. For this study, I have watched the growth of his channel and how quickly it grew after him joining certain projects

Fig 1. A Chart of JSchlattLIVE’s subscribers (Social Blade Stats, 2021)

The chart above shows some quantitative data collected from SocialBlade. This shows the amount of subscribes gained each month, with May 2020 being when he joined the DreamSMP. Since then, his followers have continued to skyrocket, with him currently gaining 210,000 subscribers to his channel in January 2021. This is his current project and therefore I have studied more of his most recent tweets to get an accurate example of how he has recently increased traffic and attention to his channel. Netnography for this blog, I have used Netnography to study JSchlatt and the way he presents himself online. Netnography is an adaption of ethnography and can be described as “a very old, traditional technique in anthropology which is based on participant observation” (SAGE, 2011). Using this method, I have been able to identify the actions of my key influencer through the way he behaves to his audience, and the way he interacts with other influencers. Due to my personal liking to this influencer, I have been studying him for a year, but have chosen to study his exploits from the last few months instead of his early career.

Due to recent events with one of his friends, as well as the growing success of the DreamSMP, he has been catapulted into an unlikely limelight that has spread to many different types of audiences. These audiences are all coming for his content from different representations and identities that he brings forward.

The theories I have introduced represent each part of his behaviour. The Presentation of Self theory identifies how his personas are represented in every video, and how he brings himself forward from his Backstage persona to different Frontstage personas. He has presented these from the many different scenarios and has developed a fully-fledged audience based on his overall representation. This has been explored and explained in my study in relation to how he becomes a magnet for new audiences as well as this, I have studied how JSchlatt has become quite prominent on Twitter. Through Public Sphere theory, it shows that he has used the new, open online sphere to share his opinions and beliefs and present himself to others. He interacts mainly with other influencers and barely interacts with any of his fans. This shows that he knows what people want to see but only interact those with his status, and this has been explored in my study.

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Presentation of Self

What is the Presentation of Self Theory?

The Presentation of Self theory is one outlined by Goffman. In this theory, it aims to explain how people present themselves in public, or in this case online. Goffman explains how people converse in a way that others seek to find everything about that other person from the way they present themselves. Goffman describes this theory as someone using a “kind of impression that will lead them to act voluntarily in accordance with his own plan. Thus, when an individual appears in the presence of others”

In the original study, Goffman “analyses interpersonal interaction and how individuals ‘perform’ in order to project a desirable image, using the theatre to illustrate individuals’ contrasting front stage and backstage behaviour “(Bullingham and Vasconcelos, 2013)

Using this theory in the terms of identifying how a Key Influencer presents themselves to retain they status will mean identifying their behaviour in terms of the “frontstage and backstage behaviours” that Goffman attempted to identify, and using the idea of “personas” that such influencers could use to keep their audience wanting more. (Goffman, 1959)

How does JSchlatt present themselves and how it allures his audience.

JSchlatt usually presents himself with a certain group known as “Lunch Club”. This group, as shown before, has a good few member who all know each other in real life. This is his “baseline” persona, what he normally acts like. This is also shown on his own channel, through his content playing Wii games, as well as playing party games with his close friends. He is often seen as upbeat and likes to crack jokes often about the people he is playing with, as well as the games. In groups, he’s often the loudest.

Fig 1:  JSchlatt in his usual persona JSchlatt’s persona’s and presentation come through YouTube and Twitter posts. He shows both sides to his frontstage and backstage personalities, as well as showing how self-aware he is. JSchlatt knows how to behave, with his frontstage persona being his usual happy self, as explained when he is in his group of the Lunch Club. These are shown more on his YouTube, as these videos are usually recorded in one take and show him at his most comfortable. His backstage behaviour, however, is shown on twitter. He is known for less than regular updates, and sporadic posts that keep his audience and followers on their toes. He knows that this behaviour will keep them coming to his profile and wanting more. They, however, must keep going back and checking because he doesn’t have set times for YouTube or Twitter posts and therefore keeps people needing to check.

JSchlatt’s audience is aware of how wild he can be, always wanting to see what persona’s he is playing and how he behaves with each game. He knows his audience, he opens the doors for them to come to him and how to find him, he just waits for them to come to him. He can show off through his other friends’ streams and they must go to find him through other means. His persona’s and personality draw people in and persuade them to come and check him out through the random and sporadic behaviour.

JSchlatt’s personas

JSchlatt has a few persona’s, mainly his front stage ones that change through the different type of games and people he plays with. These will depend on who he is conversing with, who he aims to appeal to and who he is trying to persuade to come to his channel. These are mostly seen through his collaborations with other people.

His usual persona is his “backstage” persona. As identified by Goffman, this is his default behaviour and how he acts out of his “frontstage” persona’s, his true thoughts and feelings. This persona is shown when he is at his most comfortable, talking with friends and playing casual games such as Jackbox. This is when he is aiming to be “himself”.  His usual behaviour involves him usually cracking jokes, being loud and just trying to make people laugh. However, as time continued and he began to get involved with more streams, he began to grow a persona for each game and world he got massively involved with.

The first game he played with more people was “SMPLive” which linked in with the Lunch Club. In this series, he brought forth a frontstage persona of a “businessman and conman” making money through selling “Schlattcoin”. This brought on a change in his behaviour to the other residents of the city in the game, scamming them out of "diamonds", the currency, and trading them for his cryptocurrency and promise of offshore storage of items so they don't get taxed. This led to him persuading one of the citizens, Wilbur Soot, to steal diamonds from the police to trade. He further scams people and becomes more powerful.

This then leads to him being part of a small series of Minecraft videos on the YouTube channel "Slimecicle" where he became an almighty, godlike being that terrorized his friends in the video. This finally came to fruition where he joined Dream SMP. In this SMP, he became the president of a country and has become one of the most well-developed characters, showing the power of greed over a person. He took over and banished people from his city, becoming outrageously powerful but dying after his own failures led him to drink.  

Fig 2: Drawings from Tumblr of JSchlatt’s Dream SMP Persona (afimeatur, 2020) @afimeatur

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Public Sphere

What is the Public Sphere Theory?

 The Public Sphere theory was created by Jürgen Habermas. Habermas created this theory to explain how democratic conversation and discussion could be developed in a public space and those who inhabit it can express their opinions. Habermas explained this by “Private individuals assemble to form a public body.”  (Habermas, Lennox and Lennox, 1974). However, this public sphere was far from being truly public. “, this early “public” was limited to property-owning European origin men “(Benson, 2009).  Habermas undermines the use of media still in his theory, “ailing to imagine how the media—in league with anti-commercial reformist elements within the state—might help civil society” (Benson, 2009)

From this example, we can bring it forth into the current day and the evolution of media. Media has changed the way we access the public sphere and bringing our private thoughts and opinions towards the world. In terms of Habermas and his theory, “He continues to understate and undertheorize the potential pro-active role of the media in the public sphere.”   (Benson, 2009). The way we use our spheres of influence has changed drastically, with more and more people being able to access the internet to broaden their spheres of influence on different social media platforms, and appeal to a wide range of audiences.

From Habermas’ theory, the example of “European origin men” gives up the idea that, at the time of writing and his theory, there were divides in public opinion. Comparing this to modern day society, anyone and everyone has their chance to claim their opinion no matter race, sexuality, origin or belief. This has changed the way the theory needs to represent others and develop to reflect changes in political correctness and societal growth.

How does JSchlatt appear in terms of this theory?

JSchlatt is fitting partially to the original Habermas theory. He is a male within the public sphere who creates content and is often seen as an influencer that has status in the community. He is of Caucasian origin and is seen to be quite strong in his beliefs. However, he is usually very welcoming to opinions and controversy that comes his way.

Schlatt can use his platform in a way that relies on the followers he brings in checking up on him. He is known to have a random upload schedule that relies on his followers bringing traffic to his social medias to see if he has even brought out a new video. He will not announce when he is posting and therefore relies on the viewer to make a note or check his channel of their own volition. This links to the theory as he is in a public sphere and quite prominent so people will want to look for his opinion, videos or posts on their own and search them out.

However, linking back to the idea that people with “status” had the public sphere to themselves, he is known to only interact with fellow influencers. Checking his comments and replies on social media, he will only speak to those with a following not too dissimilar of his own. He will barely reply to those in the comments that tend to be from his fanbase, merely looking over to them. This reflects the idea of a limited public sphere, you can interact, but your opinion or voice may not be heard if you are not of importance to the person you are speaking to.

Schlatt can use his friends’ streams to gain a following by using their spheres of influence to expand his own. Through the theory from Habermas, private individuals gather to make a public sphere. This is shown with Schlatt as he makes himself known in an already established public sphere and uses his influence, as well as charismatic nature, to lure more people into his content. He will speak about this publicly and join in on different streams relating to the subjects that he is known for. He interacts with those who have similar interests to try and gather an extended public sphere to continue his growth. He has interacted with bigger influencers such as TommyInnit and James Charles to bring their followers to study his content.

Fig 1: JSchlatt and TommyInnit conversing on Twitter (JSchlatt,2021)

How this affects his audience

His audience are aware of his presence and the way he behaves online. Those who know of his nature and actions will know the best way to find out what he is doing. He uses his twitter more often than note to send out occasional, random messages that sometimes don’t make sense. This reflects his opinions, beliefs and thoughts in obscure ways that his followers seem to understand. This accumulates in a way that shows his voice is the loudest, and he can show his attitudes and strange ways of communication through his tweets.

His audience will have the doors open for them to come and see what he is doing, if he has uploaded or if he is working on anything. He will not seek out such an audience but will just be himself on any videos he is a part of. Through his behaviour, he invites people to search him up and become part of his fanbase through his thoughts and opinions being shared in many different public spheres that include those he collaborates with. He knows how to behave to get an audience interested and uses his voice as an influencer to persuade others to come to his channel and see what he has to offer. This is reminiscent of the way Habermas explains that a private individual will come together with others to create a public form. This example is shown through Schlatt joining with others to create a small sphere of influence upon those who he is seen by.

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Conclusion

To summarise this essay, JSchlatt is a strange but effective induvial who uses their influence for many different reasons and ways. He behaves in a way which relies on many different people coming together from other influencers to try his content and see if they enjoy it. He participates in large scale projects to boost his reach with different types of audiences in the hopes that some may appeal to the way he acts and portrays himself. JSchlatt has become extremely popular in the last few months due to this approach and the fact he has taken leaps towards bettering himself and creating a wider community with a variety of creators.

The way JSchlatt has presented himself using personas and personalities, explained through the presentation of self-theory, has greatly influenced those he has brought to his channel. He has become known for a certain type of behaviour, being a villain. This villain and dark behaviour have become a staple of his pretend personas. With his evil and villainous nature in most of his Minecraft videos creating fun but suspenseful videos for most of the people he includes in these escapades. However, he also tends to show his sweet and caring backstage persona to those he considers close enough and this influences others to watch all manner of videos that include him to see just how he acts in each one. This increases his status as an influencer as people want to see what he behaves like and acts like with others.

As well as this, the Public Sphere theory links well to how JSchlatt has become an influencer through the way he behaves in a public forum. He displays his opinions and beliefs freely without worry of repercussion, but also does so in a way that relies on his audience constantly coming to check his platforms for updates as he never informs anyone of posts or uploads. He holds authority over his audience by only interacting with other influencers and barely interacting with his fans. The only times he interacts is when he is live on other friend's streams or when he directly asks for input from his fans and followers on projects and forms.

In conclusion, JSchlatt is indeed an influencer but obscure to say the least. He is constantly growing due to recent popularity and will continue to gain traction for a while. He has become a very well-known meme maker and influencer among the Minecraft communities and shows no sign of slowing down as he knows ways to control and gain and audience through his actions.

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References

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Bullingham, L. and Vasconcelos, A., 2013. ‘The presentation of self in the online world’: Goffman and the study of online identities. Journal of Information Science, [online] 39(1), pp.101-112. Available at: <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0165551512470051> [Accessed 11 December 2020].

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