SELEBTWITS: MICRO-CELEBRITY PRACTITIONERS IN INDONESIAN TWITTERSPHERE 1 SELEBTWITS: MICRO-CELEBRITY PRACTITIONERS IN INDONESIAN TWITTERSPHERE

Detta Rahmawan Newcastle University, UK

ABSTRACT

Drawn from the notion that Twitter is a suitable context for micro-celebrity practices (Marwick, 2010) this research examines interactions between Indonesian Twitter-celebrities called selebtwits and their followers. The results suggest that several strategies include: stimulated conversation, audience recognition, and vari- ous level of self-disclosure that have been conducted by the selebtwits to maintain the relationship with their followers. This research also found that from the follower viewpoint, interaction with selebtwits is often per- ceived as an “endorsement” and “achievement”. However, there are others who are not particularly fond of the idea of the selebtwits-follower’s engagement. Some selebtwits-followers’ interactions lead to “digital in- timacy”, while others resemble parasocial interaction and one-way communication. Furthermore, this study suggests that in the broader context, selebtwits are perceived in both positive and negative ways.

Keywords: Twitter, social media, micro-celebrity, selebtwits

SELEBTWIT: MICRO-CELEBRITY DALAM RUANG TWITTER DI INDONESIA

ABSTRAK

Twitter adalah salah satu media sosial di mana wacana mengenai micro-celebrity berkembang (Marwick, 2010). Berangkat dari hal tersebut, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat wacana micro-celebrity di Indo- nesia dengan menganalisis interaksi yang terjadi diantara selebritis Twitter Indonesia yang disebut selebtwit dengan para followers (pengikut) nya. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa terdapat beberapa strategi komuni- kasi yang dilakukan oleh para selebtwit untuk menjaga hubungan dengan para followers-nya, antara lain: percakapan yang terstimulasi, pengakuan terhadap followers sebagai khalayak, dan berbagai strategi pen- gungkapan diri. Hasil lain menunjukkan bahwa dari sudut pandang para followers, interaksi mereka dengan para selebtwit sering dipandang sebagai sarana untuk promosi diri. Beberapa diantara mereka juga melihat interaksi ini sebagai sebuah prestasi. Namun di sisi lain, terdapat pula sebagian followers yang tidak begitu tertarik untuk melakukan interaksi secara lebih personal kepada para selebtwit. Beberapa bentuk interaksi yang telah dianalisis dalam penelitian ini memperlihatkan konsep “keintiman digital”. Tetapi di pihak lain terjadi pula interaksi yang bersifat “parasosial” dan satu arah. Lebih jauh, studi ini memperlihatkan bahwa dalam konteks yang lebih besar, selebtwit sebagai manifestasi dari wacana micro-celebrity dapat dimaknai secara positif maupun negatif.

Kata-kata kunci: Twitter, media sosial, micro-celebrity, selebtwit

Korespondensi: Detta Rahmawan, S.I.Kom., MA. Newcastle University, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom. Email: [email protected] 2 Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi, Volume 2, No. 1, Juni 2014 hlm 1-11

INTRODUCTION ers in Indonesia has become widely famous and considered as Twitter-celebrities or selebtwits Vanessa Grigoriadis, a contributing editor at (Maulia, 2013; Jakarta Globe, 2013) which Vanity Fair wrote an article entitled “American resemble the notion of micro-celebrity prac- Tweethearts” which tells the story of a group tices on Twitter (Marwick, 2010; Marwick & of wealthy, attractive young women who live boyd, 2010). Hence, to extend the line of study in places like New York and California, and about micro-celebrity practices, this research become famous on Twitter – a micro-blogging examines interactions which occur between service with social networking features – called selebtwits and their followers, and discuss the the “Twilebrity” (2010). These women are not broader issues related to this phenomenon. conventionally famous in the same way as An- gelina Jolie or Madonna; rather, they are just METHODOLOGY: ETHNOGRAPHY common people and non-public figures. The “Twilebrity” phenomenon illustrates the emer- This research seeks to analyze interactions gence of Internet-celebrity created by the prop- between selebtwits and their followers in In- agation of Twitter. donesian Twittersphere2. For this purpose, eth- The trend of people who become famous nography as a methodology has been used for online has been studied by Theresa Senft, who collecting data: including brief interviews, ob- coined the term “micro-celebrity” to refer to servations and discourse analysis to examine women called “Camgirls”; such women broad- the broader issues surrounding the selebtwits cast their lives and construct their identities phenomenon. Ethnography is an approach over the Internet via webcams and LiveJournal1 which requires “participating, overtly or covert- (2008). Micro-celebrity can be understood as ly, in people’s daily lives for an extended peri- set of practices or “techniques” on social media od of time, watching what happens, listening to in which people construct a self-presentation what is said, asking questions – in fact, collect- with various tactics and strategies drawn from ing whatever data are available to throw light advertising and marketing discourses (Mar- on the issues that are the focus of the research” wick, 2010). As a result, some people often de- (Hammersley, 1995, p. 1). The following re- ploy and maintain their online identities “as if it search is divided into two phases: the first phase were a branded good” (Senft, 2012, p. 1). The identifies the selebtwits, and collects data from notion of identities as “brand” within online en- relevant sources on the Internet which related vironments is particularly apparent in one of to- to this phenomenon, and the second observes day’s most popular social media, Twitter. in detail the interactions between selebtwits and Micro-celebrity practitioners often see their their followers, followers as a fan base, and that they often con- The first phase of this research identifies struct their online personas for the consumption selebtwits and finds examples of them. To do of others (Marwick, 2010; Marwick & boyd, so, I posted questions to my own followers and 2010). Within academic discourses, research sent @reply questions or direct messages to on micro-celebrity practices is mainly focused follow up on their answers. While all the Twit- in the US or European contexts, while similar ter accounts I reference are public, I have ano- phenomena in other places have yet to be exam- nymized all of my respondents. My questions ined. This research selected Indonesia for sever- included: “Do you know about “selebtwits”?”, al reasons: social media users in Indonesia have “In your opinion, who are selebtwits?”, “Why grown at tremendous speed (Lim, 2012) and are these selebtwits famous?”, and so on. These Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta is considered questions were not fixed and some of them were the most active “Twitter City” in the world. It slightly modified according to the respondents’ has been suggested that Indonesians “generated answers. I used informal Bahasa Indonesia (In- more Tweets than anywhere else on earth” (Se- miocast, 2012; Saleh, 2013). Some Twitter us- 2 Twittersphere refers to “the communi- ty of people who use the microblogging service 1 LiveJournal is a social network sites Twitter, and all the messages that they put on where users can write a blog, diary, or journal: the Internet” (http://www.macmillandictionary. http://www.livejournal.com/ com/dictionary/british/twittersphere) SELEBTWITS: MICRO-CELEBRITY PRACTITIONERS IN INDONESIAN TWITTERSPHERE 3

donesian Language) to make the process feel dinary people”, famous on Twitter, and having informal and more like a daily conversation. To large numbers of followers. Although all of ensure that the selebtwits who were identifi ed the respondents emphasized the importance of by the respondents were not fi ctional, a back- follower count (see fi gure 1), what they meant ground check was completed of these individ- by “large numbers of followers” varied. Some uals’ Linkedin3 profi les, in addition to reading respondents said 5,000 followers was enough their blogs or personal webs, etc. Data were while others thought the minimum amount was also collected from some of Indonesian online more than 10,000. Selebtwits’ popularity can news, Twitter search features, and other rele- also considered from the way people reacted to vant materials from the Internet to reveal addi- their tweets. With a large number of followers, tional facts about what a selebtwit is and how almost all of their activity on Twitter obtained Indonesian perceived this phenomenon. constant feedback from their followers in the In Interactions between Selebtwits and their form of retweets or replies. Followers, I asked further questions to the re- spondents such as: “Do you ‘follow’ these selebtwits?”, “Why do you follow (or not fol- low) them?”, “What kinds of interactions usu- ally occur between you and the selebtwits?” etc., to know what kind of interactions occurred between the respondents and the selebtwits. To discover the way the selebtwits presented them- selves and interacted with their followers to maintain their popularity, I read two months’ of these individuals’ tweets, check their mention tabs and observed their content type. Analysis was also performed to fi nd out how their fol- Figure 1. 1 Example of responses lowers connect and interact with them. For an- alytical purposes, some examples were selected Female user(1): @dettarmwn4 Selebtwits are to illustrate the results. The data obtained are someone who can be catego- not quantifi ed; rather, “thematic” categories and rized as well-known people descriptions (Ryan & Bernard, 2003) has been in the Twittersphere. It can used as the analytic tool. Ethnographic study on be seen from (their) follower social media emphasizes how people in a par- count, (and) how many peo- ticular place understand their own social media ple reacted (to their tweets). use (Marwick, 2010). Since this study employ Male user (2): @dettarmwn (Selebtwits are) qualitative method and only uses a very small someone who successfully set of data, the results cannot be generalized for made themselves and their all of the micro-celebrity practitioners in Indo- daily activities interesting via nesia. Future empirical works might strengthen social media (Twitter) thus this topic with a broader set of participants and many people are following data. them. Female user (2): @dettarmwn (Selebtwits are) RESULTS & ANALYSIS someone who become fa- mous in Twitter (which can From the 65 Twitter users who responded to be) identifi ed by follower my questions, nearly all were well-informed count and klout score5. These about the selebtwits phenomenon, although they conceptualized it in various ways. The 4 @dettarmwn is my username on Twit- majority of respondents identifi ed them as “or- ter 5 Klout is one of the most popular analyt- 3 Linkedin is a social network sites which ic tools within internet marketing, which ranks mostly used for professional networking (http:// people according to their “online social infl u- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn) ence” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klout). 4 Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi, Volume 2, No. 1, Juni 2014 hlm 1-11

people are not famous be- forehand. Examples of users who were identifi ed by the respondents as selebtwits were the following: Some respondents noted that selebtwits are @newsplatter @ndorokakung, @rahneputri, @ avid users who tweet more frequently than aver- amrazing, @miund, @zarryhendrik, @hotrade- age users. Their tweets also have original char- ro, etc. Their Linkedin profi les, which held their acteristics or particular “themes” which made professional backgrounds, and their personal them unique. Examples of these characteristics webs, blogs and other online materials which are being “funny”, “witty”, “insightful”, “ro- contained information about them were ob- mantic”, “informative” or “nyinyir”6 (see fi gure tained from Google search. All of these people 2). were professionals working in Jakarta, the cap- ital city of Indonesia. They had been tweeting for more than two years (checked by free twit- ter analytics twitaholic.com and twittercount- er.com) and all of them had more than 50.000 followers. Analysis about the selebtwits in the broader context also has been done to obtain further information which related to this phe- nomenon. The results suggest that selebtwits are perceived in both positive and negative ways. The Selebtwits are “ordinary people” who be- come micro-celebrity practitioners, and in doing Figure 1. 2 Example of responses so resemble the concept of the “demotic turn” (Turner, 2010) on social media. As Twitter-re- lated celebrities, apparently their popularity is Female user (1): @dettarmwn IMHO (In my not limited only on the Twittersphere. Some of honest opinion) a selebtwit these individuals utilize their online visibili- is someone behind a (twitter) ty and infl uence for various purposes; such as account who not only has a for marketing, political campaign, and so on. large number of followers Micro-celebrity practitioners might not be that but (they) also have a (cer- different from “real” celebrity8. It has been said tain) “character”. (And) they that celebrities can utilize their fame for social must be original. or economic gain. Akin to real life celebrities Female user (2): Criteria: their tweets have who often produce their own products, such as certain themes/patterns, clothing lines (Hewett, 2013), some selebtwits (they) become (a) trendsetter also produce their own goods, particularly in the world of Twitter, (and) books (Tribun News, 2013; Satvika, 2012a). they at least have thousands User such as @rahneputri (70,657 followers) of followers @dettarmwn 7 and @amrazing (393,393 followers) is the ex- #STQ2 ample of selebtwits who have successfully pub- Female user (3): @dettarmwn Of course I lished their own books (see fi gure 3). Further- know, they are “the infl uenc- more, in the discourse of marketing, selebtwits’ er” on Twitter. (They) have a infl uence is useful for advertising purposes or particular identity and char- product endorsement: creating “buzz9” within acter which made them well- digital marketing campaigns in Indonesia (Dai- known: witty/nyinyir/funny/ ly Social, 2013; Paramaditha, 2013). etc. 6 “Nyinyir” is an idiom in the Indonesian 8 By “real celebrity” I refer to celebri- language which can be interpreted as the act of ty practitioners who is widely famous such as commenting on people in sarcastic and/or nega- Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, etc tive tone. 9 The term “buzz” refers to “marketing 7 #STQ is a hashtag that I used to keep buzz” as an advertising technique in Web 2.0 track of the questions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_buzz). SELEBTWITS: MICRO-CELEBRITY PRACTITIONERS IN INDONESIAN TWITTERSPHERE 5

are interesting issues in that Selebtwits are per- ceived negatively. For example, the screenshot below shows some of the users who suggests that selebtwits can be a writer only because of their fame and not because of their writing abil- ity (see fi gure 4).

Figure 1. 4 Negative perceptions of selebtwits

Female user (1): Nowadays it seems very easy to publish a book. (You) Should become seleb twit, Figure 1. 3 Example of selebtwits’ books. hence (you) can (immediate- ly) become a writer. One user mentioned @rahneputri and @ Female user (2): Nowadays, there are so many amrazing and told them that she bought their selebtwits who write and sell books. @rahneputri then retweeted her tweet random books, and promote and replied to her. them from their Twitter ac- counts. (Their) Books are Female user: @amrazing @rahneputri I nonsense and they are not know it is late, but (she im- even funny. plied that she has just recent- ly bought their books) hehe The term “celebrity”, commonly understood @rahneputri: @(users) @amrazing aiiih as “a famous person”, sometimes creates a thank you :* :* schism: either you are celebrity or you are not (Marwick & boyd, 2011). The label selebtwits Politics and public affairs also play an im- or “ Twitter-celebrities” at some extent creates a portant role on Indonesian Twittersphere. It distinction between Twitter-celebrities and “or- has been suggested that in Indonesia, social dinary” users. Rahne Putri, using username @ media has now become “a potential new bat- rahneputri on Twitter in an interview admitted tleground” for politicians and also for gener- that the way people talk about selebtwits are ating public movements and other activism somewhat exaggerated and made her uncom- (Lim, 2012; Jakarta Post, 2013). Study found fortable (Tribun News, 2013). User such as @ that there are political infl uencers such as these zarryhendrik (125,000 followers) complains selebtwits who come from a range of different about the emergence of “selebtwits-haters”, and backgrounds (Burson-Marsteller, 2012). While @Pitra (11,000 follwers) bluntly said that he it still remains to be seen whether or not these does not like that label (see fi gure 5). selebtwits will continue to have important roles on the emergence of digital campaign in Indo- nesia, their existences as “the Twitter infl uenc- ers” are perceived positively. The opportunity to monetize infl uence can be seen as one of the most important factors of why people want to build their online rep- Figure 1. 5 Users who uncomfortable with the label utation. However, in the broader context, there selebtwits 6 Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi, Volume 2, No. 1, Juni 2014 hlm 1-11

@Zarryhendrik: Now I have a hundred tones. He often refers to his audience by col- thousand followers… so you can call me lective nouns such as “tweeps”, “tuips”, “guys” aselebtwit right? It means I have haters. which resembles one-to-many communication. Fak My life is complicated #butstillhand- He also often “stimulates” conversation and some. asked his followers to participate in particular @Pitra: @dettarmwn Actually, I do not activities, such as surveys with a witty or un- really like the term selebtwit. I prefer KOL usual theme. His last “project” was what he (Key Opinion Leader) as people who can called a “national survey of ex-girlfriends/boy- affect followers. friends” (survey mantan nasional). The results of the survey are then published and discussed It has been said that some people adore ce- either on his blog10 or on his timeline, often by lebrities, and others dislike them. The analysis using particular hashtags such as “#surveyman- suggests that selebtwits as ordinary people who tan” (see fi gure 6). have gained popularity and are seen as Twitter celebrities also create both positive and negative perceptions. Yet, up to this moment, selebtwits’ discourse still persists as a frequently discussed topic on Indonesian Twittersphere. In Indonesian’s selebtwits interactions, as micro-celebrity practitioners, selebtwits attract a great deal of attention and responses from oth- er Twitter users. Selebtwits use Twitter for var- ious purposes. They use it to tell others about their daily lives, articulate their opinions, and chat with their followers. The next part of the analysis will discuss several examples which Figure 1. 6 Reaction of @newsplatter’s #surveyman- have been chosen to illustrate selebtwits -fol- tan. lowers’ interactions. The fi rst example comes from user “@ newsplatter”, who had around 65,700 followers. @newsplatter: :) RT Female users (1) (I @newsplatter’s real name is Henry Manampir- have) just fi lled @newsplat- ing, a professional who works in Leo-Burnett ter’s #surveymantan. I advertising agency in Jakarta, Indonesia (Cam- (am) satisfi ed x’))). paign Brief Asia, 2013) He is an active blogger Female user (1): (I have) just fi lled @ in http://manampiring17.wordpress.com/ and he newsplatter’s #surveyman- also wrote his own book which was published tan. I (am) satisfi ed x’))). by Gramedia, one of the biggest book publish- Female user (3): Just woke up… and directly ers in Indonesia (Gramedia, 2012). On Twitter, fi lled @newsplatter’s #sur- Henry is widely recognized because of his wit- veymantan…. ty, humorous, and sometimes “nerdy” tweets, Male users (4): laughing hard (while) fi lling which cover various themes ranging from his @newsplatter’s #survey- daily life and commentary on Indonesian news mantan. headlines, to random jokes, inspirational quota- tions, books, movies, and gadget reviews. While @newsplatter’s ways of commu- With 65,700 followers, his tweets frequently nicating with followers are not always in the receive immediate feedback from his follow- form of two-way conversations, and some of ers. From the observations, the majority of his the conversations were stimulated, he always tweets are light, and funny. He rarely tweets on tried to recognize the existence of his follow- serious issues such as politics or religion, but ers by responding and retweeting some of the when he does, he usually wrapped it with jokes to make them lighter; hence, his followers also 10 See: http://manampiring17.wordpress. interact with him in similar light-humorous com/2013/08/06/laporan-survey-mantan-nasi- onal-2013/ SELEBTWITS: MICRO-CELEBRITY PRACTITIONERS IN INDONESIAN TWITTERSPHERE 7

interesting replies that he received. Generally, @amrazing (1): Handsome face with blue eyes, @newsplatter’s interactions with his followers Jason :3 are consistent with the way he presents himself @amrazing (2): Etta’s scary face. She usually as someone who is fun, witty and humorous, cute though.. :)). which strengthened the argument about the im- portance of “uniqueness” for the selebtwits. Almost all of the conversations between @ Communicating via Twitter has become a amrazing and his followers use informal lan- daily routine for selebtwits as micro-celebrity guage and often use emoticons as emotional practitioners. To maintain a connection with expressions. When one of @amrazing’s cats their followers, they often give snippets of their was sick, he talked about it on Twitter, and im- daily activities, inviting their followers to see mediately his followers replied with comforting parts of their private life. These self-disclosure messages to tell him that they hoped his cat re- strategies produce a sense of intimacy, which in covered quickly (see fi gure 8). His self-disclo- turn may sustain and further cultivate social ties sure and the way the followers interact with him between them and their followers. To illustrate resemble “digital intimacy” (Thompson, 2008), this, the following is an example from Alexan- which illustrates the notion that following a der Thian, a 31-year-old businessman, script ed- person’s tweets over a period of time may “cre- itor, blogger at http://amrazing.com/ and book ate an equally valid feeling of ‘knowing’ them” writer in Jakarta, Indonesia, who is widely rec- (Marwick & boyd, 2011, p. 148). ognized as @amrazing in Twitter. With 393,393 Twitter followers, he is considered one of the most well-known selebtwits in Indonesian Twit- tersphere. @amrazing’s tweets contain various types of topics ranging from jokes, discussion about Hollywood movies and pop culture to viral events on the Internet, but mostly he often tells random stories about his work, friends and dai- ly life. The way he opened himself up with a stream of everything that is going on with his life invites his followers to feel “connected” with him. Trivial, mundane tweets about the movie that he watched, his lunch, conversa- tions with his boss, etc. were often seen on his timeline. He also frequently tells his followers about his cats, posts their pictures, and tells his followers about the name of each cat, and so on (see fi gure 7). Figure 1. 8: Examples of intimate messages from @ amrazing’s followers.

Many users seem eager to get attention from the selebtwits, and these people frequent- ly engage with selebtwits as if they were their friends. Drawn on the example of @amrazing’s sick cats (fi gure 8), his followers send intimate messages and talk as if they know each oth- er. They still continue to mention and reply to him even if they know that he may not reply Figure 1. 7 Examples of @amrazing’s tweets about cats. back. While this may seem meaningless, there are users who enjoy being replied to by these selebtwits and perceive this interaction as some 8 Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi, Volume 2, No. 1, Juni 2014 hlm 1-11

kind of “achievement”. The screenshot below From the observations, I also found that (see fi gure 9) shows one female user who was there are users who are pleased if their tweets being mentioned by the selebtwits @zarryhen- get retweeted by the selebtwits since they re- drik, and then she talked about it by posting a ceive sudden attention from these selebtwits’ screen capture of her public timeline. After that, followers (see fi gure 10). some of her friend replied her, and they engage in a conversation which suggests that being re- plied to by selebtwits is some kind of achieve- ment. Figure 1. 10: Interaction as endorsement Female user (1): Hahaha, since (my) bb (blackberry) does not have Female user (1): Since amrazing RT (Retweet- screen capture, so here it is, ed) and replied (my tweet), being mentioned by #zarry- I receive a lot of mentions.. hendrik :*. Hahahha… 11,, (you’re) being Female user (2): Eciye ciyee Female user (2): @amrazing Bro, my mention’s mentioned by @zarryhen- tab is full because of your drik. followers :| Female user (3): Ihiwww you should retweet his reply #zarryhendrik. Female user (1): (replied to female user 1 &2) In summary, users who frequently inter- I have already “favorited12” act with selebtwits (by replying their tweets it. or retweeting with added comments) perceive

feedback as an achievement because “receiving 11 Both “eciye ciyee” and “ihiwww” is a a message from a highly followed individual similar expression with “wow” or “whoa” in is a status symbol” within the fan community English (Marwick & boyd, 2011, p. 150). Furthermore, 12 “Favorite” is one feature on Twitter they are also pleased if their tweets get retweet- which used for saving someone’s tweets. By ed since retweeting practices, which mainly favorited the tweet where she was being men- used to engage in a conversation between users tioned by @zarryhendrik, she she save it as a and a way to “copying and rebroadcasting” oth- “commemorative tweet”.

Figure 1. 9: Interaction as achievement SELEBTWITS: MICRO-CELEBRITY PRACTITIONERS IN INDONESIAN TWITTERSPHERE 9 ers’ tweets, can also be seen as a form of public someone who can be regarded as a “friend”. endorsement13 and a way to increase users’ vis- However, they still recognized the infl uence and ibility (boyd, et al., 2010). the popularity of selebtwits . While the possibili- Some of the respondents in this research in- ty of interactions is not what they have in mind terestingly said that that they feel reluctant to when they follow selebtwits , these people still interact with selebtwits because they do not enjoy their tweets and they do not completely know them in person and the only reason they rule out the possibility of interaction if they followed selebtwits was for one-way entertain- come across particular tweets or topics which ment or information purposes, and hence they interest them. do not expect interaction (see fi gure 11). SUMMARY & CONCLUSSION

Micro-celebrity practices consist of a set of learned techniques that are leveraged differently by individuals to create an online persona for the consumption of others. On Twitter, communi- cation and participation, as well as self-presen- tation and self-promotion, occur and are inter- twined. This research has discussed the concept of selebtwits as ordinary people who become “ Twitter celebrities” and how users perceive Figure 1. 11: The silent reader them. Drawn on the analysis of selebtwits -fol- lowers’ interactions, it has been found that these selebtwits conduct several strategies to interact Male user (1): @dettarmwn very often I with their followers and keep them “connect- am just a “silent reader”, I ed” by creating a sense of “digital intimacy” do not really like the idea of (Thompson, 2008). mentioning them to get their For some users, the possibility of interaction attentions, except if there is is the reason why people become loyal follow- something that made me re- ers of selebtwits. For others, however, these ally want to comment on it. selebtwits are seen as merely a source of en- Female user (2): @dettarmwn I follow (these tertainment or information, where they do not selebtwits) but (I) never in- fi nd it is necessary to interact with them. Un- teract, (I) only read them for like “parasocial interaction”, where the celeb- entertainment (laugh). rity might be unaware of the existence of their Female user (3: @dettarmwn Since (i) do not fans, this research found that selebtwits main- know them other than in the tain their followers by several strategies such online world, maybe I only as: stimulated conversation, audience recogni- retweet some of their tweets. tion, and various level of self-disclosure. Fur- thermore, the analysis suggested that from the These people serve as a passive audience of follower viewpoint, interactions between them these selebtwits without wanting to know more are considered as “endorsement” and “achieve- about them in person. This shows that there are ment”. users who are not particularly fond of the idea This research found that Twitter followers are of interaction. Selebtwits are perceived as only always become an important part of selebtwits a source of information or entertainment, not as micro-celebrity practitioners in a way such 13 There are various motivations for doing fans are important for celebrities. Within mar- retweeet, include: “To amplify or spread tweets keting discourses and socio-political activism, to new audiences”, “To publicly agree with selebtwits are perceived in a positive way. How- someone”, “To make one’s presence as a lis- ever, there are users who uncomfortable with tener visible” and “To recognize or refer to less the label and prefer to be called something else popular people or less visible content” (boyd, et such as “Key Opinion Leader” or “Infl uencer” al., 2010, p. 6) 10 Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi, Volume 2, No. 1, Juni 2014 hlm 1-11 since they feel that the label is perceived nega- Hewett, E. (2013). Metro.co.uk. Accessed 3 tively by others. However, additional research June 2013 at http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/06/ is necessary to explore this issue and it may be top-5-celebrity-clothing-lines-from-rihanna- interesting to investigate in more detail how to-kelly-brook-3529119/ public in general perceive the selebtwits as mi- Jakarta Globe. (2013). Jakarta globe. Ac- cro-celebrity practitioners who utilize their on- cessed 6 May 2013 at http://www.theja- line popularity into real life. kartaglobe.com/archive/editorial-social-me- Since the dataset used in this research was dia-both-awesome-and-bad/ relatively small, the results cannot be used to Jakarta Post. (2013). Jakarta post. Accessed 30 generalize the entire discourse of Indonesian July 2013 at http://www.thejakartapost.com/ Twittersphere; rather, it is best regarded as a news/2013/05/07/political-wars-set-heat-so- “selective snapshot” of micro-celebrity prac- cial-media.html tices in Indonesia. Future study should address Lim, M. (2012). Many clicks but little sticks: the issue about internet access in Indonesia and social media activism in Indonesia. Journal whether or not it has some effect on the emerg- of Contemporary Asia. ing selebtwits phenomenon. It is also important Marwick, A. (2010). tiara.org. Accessed 17 to critically analyze why the majority of the January 2012 at http://www.tiara.org/disser- selebtwits comes from Jakarta, Indonesia, and tation/index.html most of them are professional or upper mid- Marwick, A. & boyd, d. (2011). To see and be dle-class. Finally, further research using a dif- seen:celebrity practise on twitter. conver- ferent methodology and larger dataset may be gence: the international journal research into useful to broaden the study of the micro-celeb- new media technologies, 17(2), p. 139–158. rity practices happening in today’s contempo- Marwick, A. E. & boyd, d. (2010). I tweet rary society. honestly, i tweet passionately: twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. 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