DOCSLIB.ORG

Microcelebrity Practices: a Cross-Platform Study Through a Richness Framework

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Microcelebrity Practices: a Cross-Platform Study Through a Richness Framework Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE May 2018 Microcelebrity Practices: A Cross-Platform Study Through a Richness Framework Sikana Tanupabrungsun Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Tanupabrungsun, Sikana, "Microcelebrity Practices: A Cross-Platform Study Through a Richness Framework" (2018). Dissertations - ALL. 879. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/879 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT Social media have introduced a contemporary shift from broadcast to participatory media, which has brought about major changes to the celebrity management model. It is now common for celebrities to bypass traditional mass media and take control over their promotional discourse through the practice of microcelebrity. The theory of microcelebrity explains how people turn their public persona into media content with the goal of gaining and maintaining audiences who are regarded as an aggregated fan base. To accomplish this, the theory suggests that people employ a set of online self- presentation techniques that typically consist of three core practices: identity constructions, fan interactions and promoting visibility beyond the existing fan base. Studies on single platforms (e.g., Twitter), however, show that not all celebrities necessarily engage in all core practices to the same degree. Importantly, celebrities are increasingly using multiple social media platforms simultaneously to expand their audience, while overcoming the limitations of a particular platform. This points to a gap in the literature and calls for a cross-platform study. This dissertation employed a mixed-methods research design to reveal how social media platforms i.e., Twitter and Instagram, helped celebrities grow and maintain their audience. The first phase of the study relied on a richness scoring framework that quantified social media activities using affordance richness, a measure of the ability of a post to deliver the information necessary in affording a celebrity to perform an action by using social media artifacts. The analyses addressed several research questions regarding social media uses by different groups of celebrities and how the audience responded to different microcelebrity strategies. The findings informed the design of the follow-up interviews with audience members. Understanding expectations and behaviors of fans is relevant not only as a means to enhance the practice’s outcome and sustain promotional activity, but also as a contribution to our understandings about contemporary celebrity-fans relationships mediated by social media. Three findings are highlighted. First, I found that celebrities used the two platforms differently, and that different groups of celebrities emphasized different core practices. This finding was well explained by the interviews suggesting that the audiences had different expectations from different groups of celebrities. Second, microcelebrity strategies played an important role in an audience’s engagement decisions. The finding was supported by the interviews indicating that audience preferences were based on some core practices. Lastly, while their strategies had no effect on follow and unfollow decisions, the consistency of the practices had significant effects on the decisions. This study makes contributions to the theory of Microcelebrity and offers practical contributions by providing broad insights from both practitioners’ and audiences’ perspectives. This is essential given that microcelebrity is a learned practice rather than an inborn trait. MICROCELEBRITY PRACTICES: A CROSS-PLATFORM STUDY THROUGH A RICHNESS FRAMEWORK by Sikana Tanupabrungsun B.Eng., King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand, 2008 M.Eng., King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand, 2012 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Science and Technology. Syracuse University May 2018 Copyright Ó Sikana Tanupabrungsun 2018 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my doctoral advisor, Jeff Hemsley, for his endless encouragement, mentorship and support of my study, research and my life in general. I could not imagine having a better doctoral advisor. I am also grateful to the members of my committee for their insightful comments and thoughtful feedback throughout writing this dissertation. This dissertation would not have been possible without funding from the Center for Computational and Data Sciences (CCDS). Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends for their encouragement and support during the hard times. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................... I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................................ V TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ VI LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................. VIII LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ X LIST OF EQUATIONS ............................................................................................................................ XIII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 1.1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION .......................................................................................................2 1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM ...........................................................................................................................4 1.3 RESEARCH METHODS AND FINDINGS ..................................................................................................5 1.4 TERMINOLOGIES ..................................................................................................................................9 1.5 CONTRIBUTIONS ................................................................................................................................10 1.6 DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION ..............................................................................................................12 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................13 2.1 CELEBRITY STUDIES ..........................................................................................................................13 2.1.1 Theory of Microcelebrity ............................................................................................................14 2.1.2 Core Practices of Microcelebrity ...............................................................................................18 2.1.3 Related Studies ...........................................................................................................................20 2.1.4 Summary .....................................................................................................................................26 2.2 THEORETICAL MODELS .....................................................................................................................28 2.2.1 Theory of Affordances ................................................................................................................29 2.2.2 Media Richness Theory ..............................................................................................................38 2.2.3 Summary .....................................................................................................................................52 2.3 TECHNOLOGY ARTIFACTS, ENGAGEMENT AND FOLLOWERSHIP ON SOCIAL MEDIA ........................54 2.3.1 Technological Artifacts ..............................................................................................................55 2.3.2 Followership on Social Media ...................................................................................................57 2.3.3 Follower Engagement on Social Media .....................................................................................64 2.3.4 Summary .....................................................................................................................................69 2.4 LITERATURE SUMMARY .....................................................................................................................69 2.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ......................................................................................................................70 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW ..........................................................................................74 3.1 METHODOLOGY REVIEW ...................................................................................................................75 3.2 QUANTITATIVE STUDIES ....................................................................................................................76
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In the Time of the Microcelebrity: Celebrification and the Youtuber Zoella
    In The Time of the Microcelebrity Celebrification and the YouTuber Zoella Jerslev, Anne Published in: International Journal of Communication Publication date: 2016 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license: CC BY-ND Citation for published version (APA): Jerslev, A. (2016). In The Time of the Microcelebrity: Celebrification and the YouTuber Zoella. International Journal of Communication, 10, 5233-5251. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/5078/1822 Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 International Journal of Communication 10(2016), 5233–5251 1932–8036/20160005 In the Time of the Microcelebrity: Celebrification and the YouTuber Zoella ANNE JERSLEV University of Copenhagen, Denmark This article discusses the temporal changes in celebrity culture occasioned by the dissemination of digital media, social network sites, and video-sharing platforms, arguing that, in contemporary celebrity culture, different temporalities are connected to the performance of celebrity in different media: a temporality of plenty, of permanent updating related to digital media celebrity; and a temporality of scarcity distinctive of large-scale international film and television celebrities. The article takes issue with the term celebrification and suggests that celebrification on social media platforms works along a temporality of permanent updating, of immediacy and authenticity. Taking UK YouTube vlogger and microcelebrity Zoella as the analytical case, the article points out that microcelebrity strategies are especially connected with the display of accessibility, presence, and intimacy online; moreover, the broadening of processes of celebrification beyond YouTube may put pressure on microcelebrities’ claim to authenticity. Keywords: celebrification, microcelebrity, YouTubers, vlogging, social media, celebrity culture YouTubers are a huge phenomenon online.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Realities As Portrayed by Internet Personalities, Creative Truth Or Social Control? Charles L. Mitchell Grambling Stat
    Political Realities as Portrayed by Internet Personalities, Creative Truth or Social Control? Charles L. Mitchell Grambling State University Prepared for delivery at the 2020 Western Political Science Association Los Angeles, April 9, 2020, and the Western Political Science Association, Virtual Meeting, May 21, 2020 1 Abstract Political Realities as Portrayed by Internet Personalities, Creative Truth or Social Control? The trends happening in Internet and their influence on politics is the research problem this paper attempts to resolve. Internet’s beginnings as an idea that would improve the transaction strength of networks is reasoned. Recent developments in Internet that decrease the importance of interpersonal transactions and that increase the prominence of Internet personalities are presented. Questions about how influencers influence network’s ability to assist transactions are reviewed. The transaction as a unit of both economic and psychological analysis is discussed. Psychologists are presented to think of transactions as between three ego states—parent, child, and adult. The possibility that Internet personalities upset interpersonal transaction realities on the same ego level is imagined. How political influence could be created by encouraging more transactions from one ego state to another, for example from parent to child, is mentioned. Beliefs that transactions across different ego states is tension producing is hypothesized to effect political persuasion. Analysis of Internet personalities attempts to answer if they are likely to change Internet in the direction of more creative truth or if they will affect social control. Differences between people who think Internet is intended to make economic reasoning prevail in transactions and those who like orchestrated politics are presented.
    [Show full text]
  • How Chinese Internet Celebrity Influences Consumer Attitude to Purchase on E-Commerce
    How Chinese Internet Celebrity Influences consumer attitude to purchase on E-commerce In the case of internet fashion celebrity Dayi Zhang Master’s Thesis 15 credits Department of Business Studies Uppsala University Spring Semester of 2019 Date of Submission: 2019-06-05 Ying Li Qian Cai Supervisor: Pao Kao Abstract Problem/Purpose: Internet celebrities have shown huge commercial value by operating their E-commerce in the Chinese market. This article aims to research How Chinese internet celebrity influences consumers’ attitude to purchase on E-commerce. Method: The Primary data is collected by semi-structured interviews with consumers who followed the internet celebrity and bought products from her online stores. Meanwhile, word frequency analysis of posted context and comments on the internet is proceeded to conduct secondary data to support findings. Findings: Our findings show that the traditional source attractiveness, expertise, and involvement of celebrity are important to impact on the consumers’ attitude and drive to purchase behavior. However, source trustworthiness is not essential, and the perceived trustworthiness is limited in specialized fields (e.g. fashion) and is hard extend to other areas (e.g. cosmetics). Furthermore, perceived authenticity will reinforce trustworthiness and intimacy, and perceived interconnectedness will result in frequent and regular buying habit. Implementation: This research can serve to internet celebrities who are running or intend to start their E-commerce in China. Moreover, it is hoped this study of internet celebrity E- commerce in China can serve for future comparative studies of internet celebrity globally. Keywords: Internet celebrity, Source credibility, Consumer attitude, Purchase intention Table of contents 1.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Detta Rahmawan Selebtwits Micro Celebrity Practitioners in Indonesian Twittersphere.Indd
    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.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecommerce in China – the Future Is Already Here How Retailers and Brands Are Innovating to Succeed in the Most Dynamic Retail Market in the World
    Total Retail 2017 eCommerce in China – the future is already here How retailers and brands are innovating to succeed in the most dynamic retail market in the world www.pwchk.com Retail 2017 survey highlights mobile commerce, What is the greatest challenge you face in secure platforms, and big data analytics, among providing an omni-channel experience for others, as key investment areas for global your customer? retailers to thrive in years to come. Budget 30% constraints This report “eCommerce in China – the future Michael Cheng Too many legacy Asia Pacific & is already here” builds on the survey findings of 21% systems to change Hong Kong/China the global Total Retail 2017 to identify nine key trends that are shaping the recovery and growth Difficult to integrate Retail and Consumer % 20 existing systems Leader in the retail and consumer products sector in China. In order to stay ahead of the competition, Not a priority for our % retailers need to consider investing in identifying 13 leadership team customer needs, finding the right partners Lack of and investing beyond O2O into omni-channel % 10 expertise Foreword fulfilment. The report particularly highlights how eCommerce is evolving from being purely Lack of internal China, the largest eCommerce market in the transactional to now shaping innovation and % 6 resources world, is now setting the benchmark for present customer engagement trends across China’s and future global retailing. This is driven by its retail and consumer products sector. Source: PwC & SAP Retailer Survey; Base: 312 mobile-first consumer behaviour, innovative social commerce model, and a trusted digital China is a must-play, must-win market for China’s retail market has never been so payments infrastructure.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media's Star Power: the New Celebrities and Influencers
    Social Media’s Star Power: The New Celebrities and Influencers Stuart A. Kallen San Diego,3 CA ® © 2021 ReferencePoint Press, Inc. Printed in the United States For more information, contact: ReferencePoint Press, Inc. PO Box 27779 San Diego, CA 92198 www.ReferencePointPress.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, web distribution, or information storage retrieval systems—without the written permission of the publisher. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING- IN- PUBLICATION DATA Names: Kallen, Stuart A., 1955- author. Title: Social media’s star power : the new celebrities and influencers / by Stuart A. Kallen. Description: San Diego, CA : ReferencePoint Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020012340 (print) | LCCN 2020012341 (ebook) | ISBN 9781682829318 (library binding) | ISBN 9781682829325 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Social media--Juvenile literature. | Internet personalities--Juvenile literature. | Social influence--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC HM742 .K35 2021 (print) | LCC HM742 (ebook) | DDC 302.23/1--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012340 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012341 Contents Introduction 6 The New Entertainment Chapter One 10 Billions of Hits, Millions of Dollars Chapter Two 24 Mainstream Social Media Superstars Chapter Three 38 Reality Check Chapter Four 52 Profi ting from Bad Advice Source Notes 66 For Further Research 70 Index 73 Picture Credits 79 About the Author 80 5 Chapter One Billions of Hits, Millions of Dollars After her photos were posted to Reddit in 2012, she became an instant internet celebrity.
    [Show full text]
  • Internet Celebrity Economy”
    Journal of Frontiers in Educational Research DOI: 10.23977/jfer.2021.010324 Clausius Scientific Press, Canada Volume 1, Number 3, 2021 Analysis of Internet Marketing from the Perspective of “Internet Celebrity Economy” Yu Lejie Shandong Vocational College of Science and Technology, Weifang City, Shandong Province, 261053, China Keywords: Internet celebrity economy, Internet marketing, Analysis, Strategy Abstract: Analysing network marketing from the perspective of “network economy” requires grasping the constituent elements of “Internet celebrity economy”. Starting from the existence of the economic system, it should first establish an orderly relationship between supply and demand. Based on the analysis of online marketing, the article puts forward an online marketing strategy from the perspective of “Internet celebrity economy”, namely, rational selection of online marketing entities, provision of manufacturer information to facilitate promotion, and use of well-known platforms for marketing. 1. Introduction It is generally believed that the “Internet celebrity economy” is represented by young and beautiful fashionistas, led by the taste and vision of celebrities, for selection and visual promotion, gathering popularity on social media, and relying on a huge fan group for orientation marketing, a process of turning fans into purchasing power. Analysing network marketing from the perspective of “network economy” requires grasping the constituent elements of “Internet celebrity economy”. Starting from the existence of the economic system, it should first establish an orderly supply- demand relationship. From the inherent requirements of marketing activities, it can be seen that this supply-demand relationship is established on the basis of satisfying consumer needs and preferences, rather than the type of supply-driven sales model.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Please Read the Comments': Commenting Cultures
    Selected Papers of #AoIR2020: st The 21 ​ Annual Conference of the ​ Association of Internet Researchers D u b l i n Virtual, Irela nEventd / 2 8/ - 27-3131 Oc Octobertober 2 0202020 ‘PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS’: COMMENTING CULTURES ACROSS PLATFORMS Crystal Abidin Curtin University Platform-specific commenting cultures An old adage about the internet goes “Don’t Read The Comments”. It is a cynical word of caution from supposedly more experienced and savvy internet users, against a slew of negative, abusive, and unhelpful comments that are usually rampant online, stemming from trolling behaviour (Phillips 2015). “Don’t Read The Comments” has become an internet meme. Alongside parody websites (i.e. @AvoidComments n.d.), trawling through the comments section in search of ludicrosity has become an internet genre in and of itself. This comprises the likes of meme factory ‘The Straits Times Comment Section’ which collates absurd comments from users on a specific newspaper’s Facebook page (STcomments n.d.), as well as internet celebrity troll commentators like ‘American Ken’ M (Know Your Meme n.d.) and Singaporean ‘Peter Tan’ (Yeoh 2018), who post comments on a network of social media and fora in stealthily satirical ways that have even been co-opted for advertorials (Vox 2016). Such vernacular practice has in turn provoked a counter-genre of memes known as “I’m just Here For The Comments” (Tenor n.d.), in which users closely follow social media posts mainly for the resulting discussion and engagement in the comments section rather than the actual post itself. It is on this point of departure that this panel turns its focus to commenting cultures across platforms.
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of Internet Celebrities on the Mainstream Values of College Students: Evidence from Beijing Questionnaire Zhengyu Tao1,* and Le Sun2
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 505 6th International Conference on Social Science and Higher Education (ICSSHE 2020) The Influence of Internet Celebrities on the Mainstream Values of College Students: Evidence from Beijing Questionnaire Zhengyu Tao1,* and Le Sun2 1 Student Affairs Office, The Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China 2 School of Labour Economics,The Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Nowadays, the industry of Internet celebrities is hot, and the interaction between Internet celebrities and fans can easily affect the thinking and behavior of fans. Due to the strong plasticity of the values of college students, this article selects different types of Internet celebrities as the research objects, and focuses on the dissemination of mainstream values in China. Through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews, this article explores the mainstream values of Internet celebrities to students. In order to study how Internet celebrities affect students, this article divides the reasons why students like Internet celebrities into two categories, namely personal charm and communication content, and it corresponds to the business logic of Internet celebrities to find out which factors are the main factors that Internet celebrities influence the values of college students. The work further classifies them according to the positive and negative impacts, and find out what corrections should be made in the process of online celebrity promotion to spread the mainstream values to put forward new ideas. At the same time, it also has important reference value for the relevant departments of universities to promote student work.
    [Show full text]
  • View Publication
    Social Media in Asia Co-editors: Cui Litang Xiamen University, Tan Kha Kee College Michael H. Prosser University of Virginia and Shanghai International Studies University Dignity Press World Dignity University Press Copyright © 2014 Michael H. Prosser, except for the parts indicated otherwise. Tis work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License. Please note: Tis license allows free use of the material with the restrictions that authors and editors have to be mentioned as the originators and that works making use of it have to stay open under the same license. For details see: http://creativecommons .org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Published by Dignity Press 16 Northview Court Lake Oswego, OR 97035, USA www.dignitypress.org Book design by Uli Spalthof Front cover map from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Asia.svg by Cacahuate. Printed on paper from environmentally managed forestry: http://www.lightningsource.com/chainofcustody Book website: www.dignitypress.org/social-media-in-asia ISBN 978-1-937570-36-1 Also available as EPUB: ISBN 978-1-937570-43-9 and Kindle eBook: ISBN 978-1-937570-44-6 589 XVIII. Australian Social Media Trends John Harrison School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia [email protected] Sean Rintel School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia [email protected] Elizabeth Mitchell School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract Te vast distances Australians must negotiate to connect their small, highly urbanized population both nationally and internationally have long created the incentive for invention, innovation and the early adoption of communication technologies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spider Or the Fly? New Media, Power, and Competing Discussions of Sexual Violence in the Youtube Community
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES The Spider or the Fly? New Media, Power, and Competing Discussions of Sexual Violence in the YouTube Community A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Anthropology by Dalila Isoke Ozier 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS The Spider or the Fly? New Media, Power, and Competing Discussions of Sexual Violence in the YouTube Community By Dalila Isoke Ozier Master of Arts in Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Sherry B. Ortner, Chair In recent years, the advent of new media has enabled public figures to amass devoted followings outside of the context of the traditional media industry. Much of the success of these ―new media celebrities‖ relies on the perceived lack of artificiality in the celebrity‘s public presentation of self. Though the relationship between online content-creators and content-consumers is just as hierarchical as the relationship between traditional celebrities and their fans, the illusion of egalitarianism in digital fandom is maintained by the new media celebrity‘s performance of the ordinary, projecting the image that they are ―just like‖ the fans who idolize them and thereby encouraging a heightened sense of intimacy between fan and creator. Unfortunately, the trust fans have in their idols is regularly abused by some new media celebrities, who use their newfound influence to sexually exploit their predominately adolescent female audience. This research specifically focuses on recent reports of sexual abuse committed by content-creators in the YouTube community, examining how the pseudo-transparent construction of a digital celebrity‘s online identity obfuscates the imbalanced celebrity-fan power dynamic and creates an environment that ii facilitates the celebrity‘s abuse of authority.
    [Show full text]
  • You May Know Me from Youtube: (Micro)-Celebrity in Social Media.” in a Companion to Celebrity, Marshall, P.D
    Micro-Celebrity in Social Media | 1 Marwick, A. (in press, 2015). “You May Know Me From YouTube: (Micro)-Celebrity in Social Media.” In A Companion to Celebrity, Marshall, P.D. and Redmond, S., Eds. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Pre-Print Version: Please refer to published version for page numbers Introduction While fame has existed for centuries, celebrity is inextricably linked to media. The peculiar mixture of larger-than-life personas and the feelings of connection and intimacy they inspire are formed and spread through mass media (Rojek 2001). Thus, as media changes, so does celebrity. In the last two decades, we have seen dramatic changes in the concept of celebrity from one related solely to mass and broadcast media to one that reflects a more diverse media landscape; for instance, reality television has both revealed the mundane day-to-day lives of pop stars and sitcom actors as it simultaneously transforms ordinary people into celebrities (Kavka 2012). More recently, media technologies like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vine, and Instagram have enabled both famous and non-famous people to generate vast quantities of personal media, manipulate and distribute this content widely, and reach out to (real or imagined) audiences. The contemporary shift from broadcast to participatory media, and the popularity of social media technologies among young people, have contributed to two major changes in celebrity culture. First, “traditional” celebrities have embraced social media to create direct, unmediated relationships with fans, or at least the illusion of such. Seeming to bypass the traditional brokers of celebrity attention like agents and managers, young stars like Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian provide snapshots of their lives and interactions with followers that give the impression of candid, unfettered access.
    [Show full text]