Week 6 notes

Problems with uses and gratifications 

-superficial communications with people

-Fandom and Para social relationship/ people see everything celebrities and influences do/ people think they have a connection 

-The internet gives an allusion of a face to face relationship 

-intimacy at a distance

-Examples of this are KPOP stars and other boy bands, their image has to be maintained so that they can have an intimate relationship with their fans/ exploitative for capitalist gain

___________________________________________________________________________________

History of Internet Celebrities (1): Theresa M. Senft (2008) Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks

micro-celebrity “a new style of online performance in which people employ webcams, video, audio, blogs, and social networking sites to ‘amp up’ their popularity among readers, viewers, and those to whom they are linked online” (p.3)

Alice Marwick (2013) Status Update: 

Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age A critique of claims for authenticity and entrepreneurship in social media industrial culture as “really myths” generated by “modern neoliberal market capitalism” This is where para social relationships become important

What's underlining the whole thing is capitalism, and she is criticising influencers using this fake life and showing it as entrepreneurships

__________________________________________________________________________________

Internet celebrities use multiple platforms

Internet celebrities can be assessed based on six measures: 

(1) Scale 

(2) Platform 

(3) Audience 

(4) Nature 

(5) Practice 

(6) Impact

Qualities of internet celebrities

-Exclusivity, the glamorization and celebration of practices and possessions so elite in access or rare in occurrence that it would be unusual for ordinary people to experience them without high “economic capital.”

-Exoticism, far removed from one’s comfort zone, or so novel or foreign that it piques the interest of audiences who hold contrasting or different forms of “cultural capital.” 

-Exceptionalism, the unusual abilities, astounding qualities, or expert skills of a person that can be elite or mundane in nature but are spectacular and admired for their “technical capital” (KSI)

-Everydayness, curates the usually mundane and ordinary aspects of daily life (with candour, regularity and consistency) that a sustained social relationship, sense of community and trust is fostered as “social capital.” (Fulcrum) 

Influencer culture:

Abidin suggests Influencers are a specific form of IC She identifies recent trends in Influencer Culture: 

Archive Culture → Streaming Culture (Twitch stream, short form content)

Tasteful Consumption → Amateur Aesthetic (Influencers show authenticity, However some influencers don't do this) 

Platformed Fame → Cross-Platform Influence (Originally YouTube, but now influencers use multiple platforms for their content, short form clips uploaded to sites like tik tok and YT Shorts)

Attention Economy → Affection Economy (Originally they were after attention, however now influencers want to make you feel something as well)

Quantitative Metrics → Qualitative Impact 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zknz1b7t4jc

20 MINUTE VIDEO THAT YOU CAN WATCH