Fame Labour and Microcelebrity Culture
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Am I Too Branded? Fame Labour and Microcelebrity Culture Jonathan Mavroudis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Heath, Arts and Design Swinburne University of Technology 2020 i Abstract The visual social media application ‘Instagram’ has normalised microcelebrity culture to a point where young people are in the habit of producing branded personas designed for public consumption. Research to date has identified modes of visibility labour such as self-branding techniques and offers insight into the strategies social media users employ. However, more needs to be known about the work done behind the scenes to create and maintain branded identities and manage the potential dissonance between online social media identities and life offline. This thesis explores the questions ‘How is emotional labour involved in creating personal brands on Instagram for microcelebrities and non-microcelebrities?’ and ‘Why are microcelebrities and non- microcelebrities enacting these forms of labour? What kinds of selves are constructed in the process?’ I achieved the status of Instagram celebrity during this project with a following of over 30,000. As such the thesis constitutes an analytic autoethnography detailing my own lived experience as an internet celebrity, the experiences of others who have achieved celebrity status and everyday users. I conducted participant interviews, field observations, and surveyed over 500 non-microcelebrities and the results of these are presented alongside documentation of and reflection on my own experiences. I identify a range of emotionally laborious processes involved in performing branded personas on social media. I analyse self-branding practices such as creating sexualised content and body modifications through exploring diverse performances of aesthetic and sexualised labour. I argue that ‘fame labour’ or emotion work involved in managing tensions between competing online and offline performances of self, characterise and transform online and offline identities. Maintaining celebrified online brands alongside offline personas has become a normalised aspect of identity work for both social media celebrities and the everyday user. ii Acknowledgements I thank Deborah Dempsey, Esther Milne and Karen Farquharson for being my supervisors, mentors and support system. You provided me ongoing, invaluable guidance and were sources of motivation during difficult times. You took the time to understand me as a student and as a person, and encouraged me to learn and navigate the PhD process in a way that allowed me to perform at my best. Thank you. I also thank Sandra Gifford, Anthony McCosker, Vivienne Waller and Aisling Bailey for being a part of my progress review panel. Your belief in this project and extremely valuable input helped to shape this research. I would also like to thank my family, friends, partner and also my fur baby for supporting me in every possible way over the past four years. A very special thank you to everyone who took part in this study. I feel privileged that you chose to open up to me about your online lives and trusted me with your stories. The research process raised several sensitive topics. It was truly inspiring to see us transcend the limitations often associated with researcher/participant roles as we helped each other make sense of issues we had previously dealt with in silence. You have all been extremely generous with your time and I will be forever grateful for your contributions. This project truly would not have been possible without you. iii Declaration This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award to the candidate of any other degree or diploma, except where prior permission to do so has been received by the ADRD, and with due reference made about this in the text of the examinable outcome; 2. to the best of the candidate’s knowledge contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text of the examinable outcome, and with permission received to republish the work in the thesis; and, 3. where the work is based on joint research or publications, discloses the relative contributions of the respective creators or authors using the Authorship Declaration Form. Name: Jonathan Mavroudis Signed: Date: 22.10.2019 iv Table of Contents Abstract __________________________________________________________________ i Acknowledgements _________________________________________________________ ii Declaration _______________________________________________________________ iii Chapter One: Introduction ____________________________________________________ 1 Roles and performances _________________________________________________________________ 2 Defining microcelebrity and digital influence ________________________________________________ 4 Instagram _____________________________________________________________________________ 6 Snapchat and Instagram Stories _______________________________________________________ 7 Contribution to scholarship_______________________________________________________________ 8 Thesis structure ________________________________________________________________________ 9 Chapter Two: Identity work in the age of microcelebrity __________________________ 12 Consumption to production: The evolution of celebrity_______________________________________ 12 Identity work in virtual spaces ___________________________________________________________ 16 Microcelebrity culture __________________________________________________________________ 20 Microcelebrity and audience engagement __________________________________________________ 22 Emotional labour and online performances ________________________________________________ 26 Visibility labour: Self branding strategies __________________________________________________ 31 Sexualised and aesthetic labour __________________________________________________________ 39 Conclusion ___________________________________________________________________________ 41 Chapter Three – Researching microcelebrity ____________________________________ 45 Analytic autoethnography_______________________________________________________________ 46 Recruiting and interviewing the influencers ________________________________________________ 54 Recruiting the non-microcelebrities _______________________________________________________ 56 Ethical considerations and benefits of analytic autoethnography _______________________________ 58 Meet the microcelebrities _______________________________________________________________ 61 Conclusion ___________________________________________________________________________ 67 Chapter Four: Performing branded identities ____________________________________ 70 Display rules of visual social media _______________________________________________________ 72 Brand categories ______________________________________________________________________ 78 Emotive registers ______________________________________________________________________ 79 Personal authenticity ___________________________________________________________________ 87 Identity dissonance ____________________________________________________________________ 88 Re-branding: The new identity crisis ______________________________________________________ 92 v Benefits of a branded self ______________________________________________________________ 101 Conclusion __________________________________________________________________________ 104 Chapter Five: The work of content creation ____________________________________ 106 Planning an Insta-worthy life ___________________________________________________________ 108 Creating content _____________________________________________________________________ 111 Shirtless selfies: A case study of branded sexualised content __________________________________ 112 Creating shirtless selfies ___________________________________________________________ 115 Sexual neutrality _________________________________________________________________ 118 Gay neutrality ____________________________________________________________________ 123 Branded bodies __________________________________________________________________ 125 Surface acting Insta-photoshoots ________________________________________________________ 129 Conclusion __________________________________________________________________________ 132 Chapter Six: Managing a public audience ______________________________________ 134 Publicly documenting the self ___________________________________________________________ 135 Life-streaming brands and ephemeral social media _________________________________________ 138 Audience feedback: Responses and strategies _____________________________________________ 142 The Instagram black market: User’s expectations and aspirations ______________________________ 151 Social media detox ____________________________________________________________________ 152 The new normal: Branded relationships __________________________________________________ 157 Conclusion __________________________________________________________________________ 160 Chapter Seven: Fame labour ________________________________________________ 163 Part One: Profile curation and identity dissonance _________________________________________ 165 Fame affordances _____________________________________________________________________ 165 Are you Insta-worthy? Co-constructing microcelebrity culture _________________________________ 168 Part two: