Microcelebrity Around the Globe

Approaches to Cultures of Internet Fame

Crystal Abidin, Megan Lindsay Brown, Crystal Abidin, Megan Lindsay Brown

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781787567511
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Popular Culture
• Index: Social Sciences

This absorbing anthology uses in-depth interdisciplinary case studies from across the globe to examine the practice and concept of microcelebrity. Expanding on the existing theoretical framing of the online celebrity experience, the editors re-theorize microcelebrity to accommodate developments in global internet governance, the evolution of platform politics, the emergence of hybrid forms of celebrity, and the collapsing networks between old and new media. Chapters analyse experiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America and Australia, and consider microcelebrities at all stages of their careers, from everyday users and beginners to veteran influencers. Arguing for new perspectives and theories of microcelebrity that take into account colonial geographies, cross-media networks between influencers and legacy media, and gendered aggression and political discourses in a social media-saturated age, this volume will be of huge value to students and scholars of microcelebrity, social media, digital labour, creative industries and internet culture.

Part I: Norms

Introduction

Crystal Abidin, Megan Lindsay Brown

19112019XXXXCopyright © 2019 by Emerald Publishing Limited2019Licensed reuse rights only

Abstract

Although the early conversations of microcelebrity centered on Anglo-centric theories and context despite the varied backgrounds and cultural context of microcelebrity, this compilation of chapters seeks to assess and reframe the applications and uptake of microcelebrity around the world. Each of the chapters in this anthology contribute to expand the theoretical concept and contextualize the history and cultural affairs of those who are famous online. The case studies provide examples of how a microcelebrity emerges to fame because of their exposure and interaction within a group of niche users, a specific online community, or a specific cultural and geographical context through the social networks that emerge online. Academic scholarship on microcelebrity has crossed methodologies, disciplines and platforms demonstrating the wide appeal as the influence of these figures are on the rise. As preparation for the reader, this chapter offers a brief history of current scholarship, with an emphasis on shifting knowledge production away from an Anglo and Global North perspective. The introduction chapter serves as a road map for the reader breaking down each of the three sections of the book – norms, labors, and activism. Lastly, the co-editors have outlined different ways to read the text group chapters according to reader interest.

Keywords: Microcelebrity, internet celebrity, influencers

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Introduction

The field of microcelebrity studies was pioneered by Global Studies scholar Theresa M. Senft (2008) 10 years ago and prolifically expanded upon by Alice E. Marwick’s (2013) work on microcelebrity strategies among Silicon Valley Start-ups. In the last decade, microcelebrity studies have expanded across digital estates, populations and intensities, labor and practices, products, commodifiable entities, and national spheres. However, a vast majority of existing research looks into instances of microcelebrity in predominantly English-speaking, middle-class, white, Anglo-centric spaces or applies Anglocentric theories to different localized case studies around the world. In this book collection, the editors introduce a ten-year anniversary update to the field of microcelebrity studies by re-theorizing microcelebrity considering the underrepresented diversity in specific ideo-geographical and sociocultural domains. Specifically, this anthology examines the practice and concept of microcelebrity through interdisciplinary in-depth case studies across the globe. Through highly contextualized cultural settings and social histories, the chapters present scholarly accounts of microcelebrity as it has proliferated and diverged in global social media networks.

Together, the chapters argue for new perspectives and theories of microcelebrity that dialogue with colonial geographies within and outside of academia, cross-media networks between Influencers and legacy media, and gendered aggression and political discourses in a social media–saturated age. Specific case studies situated in various ideo-geographical locales seek to revise the concept of microcelebrity to accommodate developments in global internet governance, the evolution of platform politics, the emergence of hybrid forms of celebrity, and the collapsing networks between old and new media.

Microcelebrity Studies to Date

As (at least one account of) the theoretical history from pre-internet to internet celebrity history has been traced in a companion text (see Abidin, 2018), this section will consider how microcelebrity cultures have been studied to date pertaining to methodologies, sites and types of empirical data, and disciplinary and conceptual standpoints.

Methodologies

The methodologies employed to understand microcelebrity cultures vary, with each offering bearing its own pros and cons. Most often, researchers tend to employ content analysis given that the material produced by public-facing and publicity-seeking microcelebrities and aspirants are most accessible in this manner. They may comprise a visual analysis of the content produced by microcelebrities (i.e., Fuller & Jeffery, 2016), a discourse analysis of their text (i.e., Bakke, 2017), and usually focus on a biography of a (few) highly prominent icons as case studies (Meylinda, 2017; Slater, 2017). However these tend to focus on text in the English language and platforms arising from the Anglo-centric Silicon Valley. Other studies may draw on primary empirical data through interviews with microcelebrities (i.e., Boxman-Shabtai, 2018) or through in-depth participant observation among groups of microcelebrities as a form of culturally situated ethnography (i.e., Abidin, 2017c; Hopkins, 2019), while still others sample the experiences of users and followers through surveys (i.e., Chae, 2017).

Disciplines

While originally pioneered in the domain of communications (i.e., Marwick, 2013; Senft, 2008), microcelebrity cultures are now being studied across a variety of disciplines, including anthropology (i.e., Abidin, 2017c; Hopkins, 2019) and sociology (i.e., Bakke, 2017; Mavroudis & Milne, 2016), cultural studies (Brydges & Sjöholm, 2018) and gender studies (i.e., Lovelock, 2016), game studies (i.e., Trice & Potts, 2018) and digital media studies (i.e., Arthurs, Drakopoulou, & Gandini, 2018; Ashton & Patel, 2017), psychology (i.e., Ferchaud, Grzeslo, Orme, & LaGroue, 2018), business and marketing (i.e., Khamis, Lawrence, & Raymond, 2017; Mardon, Molesworth, & Grigore, 2018), and even law (i.e., Slater, 2017) and medicine (i.e., Chandawarkar, Daniel, Stevens, 2018; Mercer, 2018).

Platforms

This diversity in cross-disciplinary interest in microcelebrity cultures has meant that scholars are looking at cultures of use across a variety of platforms. This includes early use devices and platforms such as webcams (i.e., Bailey, 2009; Senft, 2008) and blogs (i.e., Abidin, 2015a; Bakke, 2017; Hopkins, 2019; Mcrae, 2017), and commercial enterprises such as blogshops (i.e., Abidin & Thompson, 2012) and e-commerce websites (i.e., Chen, Benbasat, & Cenfetelli, 2017). Given their vast use around the world, Silicon Valley social networking sites are also popular areas of study and include Facebook (i.e., Jin, 2018; Mota, 2016; Vochocová, 2018), Instagram (i.e., Abidin, 2014a, 2015b, 2016a, 2016b; Marwick, 2015; Neal, 2017), Twitter (i.e., Bennett & Thomas, 2014; Chandawarkar et al., 2018; Marwick & boyd, 2011; Trice & Potts, 2018), and YouTube (i.e., Arthurs et al., 2018; Ashton & Patel, 2017; Bakioğlu, 2016; Bishop, 2018; Boxman-Shabtai, 2018; Brydges & Sjöholm, 2018; Ferchaud et al., 2018; García-Rapp, 2016; Jerslev, 2016; Johnston, 2016; Lovelock, 2016; Mardon et al., 2018; Meylinda, 2017; Mustonen, 2017; Sedláček, 2016; Smith, 2017; Tolson, 2010).

With the proliferation of live video and livestreaming apps, an emergent crop of research is also focusing on Snapchat (i.e., Gkoni, Edo, Bollen, & Ecott, 2017; Phua & Kim, 2018), Twitch (i.e., Bingham, 2017; Johnson & Woodcock, 2017), and ecologies of livestreaming (i.e., Blight, 2016). Arising from the Chinese digital ecology, a stream of research is also now focused on cultures of internet celebrity specific to Douyu (i.e., Zhang & Hjorth, 2017), musical.ly (i.e., van de Put, 2017), and Weibo (i.e., Li, 2018; Wang, 2017).

Geographical Cultures

This diversity in disciplines and platforms as modes of framing cultures of microcelebrity has also generated a slow but steady stream of research on culturally specific, place-situated, and highly contextual forms of internet celebrity. Shifting away from Anglo-centric, English-speaking, global North platforms, some research is also emerging from national scapes with distinctive internet governance and platform politics. A few examples outside of the US and UK include Asia: China (i.e., Li, 2018; Meng, 2014; Wang, 2017; Zhang & Hjorth, 2017), Malaysia (i.e., Hopkins, 2019), Indonesia (i.e., Meylinda, 2017; Rahmawan, 2014), Singapore (i.e., Abidin, 2017c), South Korea (i.e., Chae, 2017); and in Europe: the Czech Republic (i.e., Sedláček, 2016; Vochocová, 2018) and Norway (i.e., Bakke, 2017), to name a few.

Units of Analysis

Following this, the unit of analysis for understanding microcelebrity cultures has also exploded in diversity. While some time-intensive, long-term ethnographies choose to follow the intergenerational development of microcelebrity cultures in a specific place (i.e., Abidin, 2017c; Hopkins, 2019), still other studies focus on a single icon as a case study, investigating either their brand biographies or the communities built around the microcelebrity. Some microcelebrities who have been studied in such detail include Americans Lonelygirl15 (Bakioğlu, 2016; Hall, 2015) and Laci Green and Lindsey Doe (Johnston, 2016), Britons Hello October (Bruijn, 2016) and Zoella (Bishop, 2018; Jerslev, 2016), Irish Bubzbeauty (García-Rapp, 2016), Chinese Hani8 and Nvliu (Zhang & Hjorth, 2017), and South Korean Han Yoo Ra (Meylinda, 2017). In addition to the wealth of studies focused on the biographies of female microcelebrities, some studies focus on male microcelebrities, including Swede PewDiePie (Fägersten, 2017), Australian Zyzz (Fuller & Jeffery, 2016), and American “Sad Michigan Fan” (Slater, 2017).

Still other studies choose to focus on networks and small groups of microcelebrities, such as beauty gurus (i.e., Mardon et al., 2018), commercial bloggers (i.e., Bakke, 2017), e-commerce livestreamers (i.e., Chen et al., 2017), political enthusiasts (i.e., Vochocová, 2018), and Gamergaters (i.e., Trice & Potts, 2018). Turning from producers to consumers of microcelebrity cultures, an influx of studies are now focusing on users and audience relations, giving attention to inquiries such as feelings of envy (i.e., Chae, 2017), processes of coming out to fans (i.e., Mustonen, 2017), Snapchat subcultural groups (i.e., Gkoni et al., 2017), communities on streaming platforms (i.e., Blight, 2016), aspirational teen interest around Influencer careers (i.e., Sedláček, 2016), and fan labor (i.e., Bakioğlu, 2016).

Conceptual Standpoints

Stemming from this spread of disciplinary frameworks and empirical corpuses, the conceptual standpoints from which scholars are theorizing microcelebrity cultures are also expanding. Perhaps most theorized is microcelebrity cultures in relation to labor, including glamor labor (Wissinger, 2015), aspirational labor (Duffy, 2016), visibility labor (Abidin, 2016b), gendered labor (Zhang & Hjorth, 2017), esthetic labor (Brydges & Sjöholm, 2018), emotional labor (Mardon et al., 2018), and algorithmic labor (Bishop, 2018). These studies collectively build on the trajectory of research on emotional labor (Hochschild, 1983), immaterial labor (Hardt, 1999), and entrepreneurial labor (Neff, Wissinger, & Zukin, 2005).

Cultures of Practice

Various cultural practices and subcultural communities of microcelebrity cultures have also caught the attention of scholars, who have investigated communities around bodybuilding (Fuller & Jeffery, 2016), LGBT activism (Lovelock, 2016; Mustonen, 2017), sexuality education (Abidin, 2017a; Johnston, 2016), politics (Tufeci, 2013; Vochocová, 2018), academia (McMillan Cottom, 2015), and practices around language (Page, 2012), humor and parody (Boxman-Shabtai, 2018), and digital artifacts such as selfies (Abidin, 2016a). A subset of studies has also begun to look at the negative subcultures and consequences of microcelebrity cultures around antagonisms and hating (Mcrae, 2017; Smith, 2017; Trice & Potts, 2018). Conceptually, emergent from this spread of studies are debates over notions of authenticity (i.e., Abidin, 2017b; Abidin & Ots, 2016; Ashton & Patel, 2017; Bruijn, 2016; Hall, 2015; Tolson, 2010), credibility (i.e., Abidin & Ots, 2016), privacy (i.e., Abidin, 2014b; Kane, 2010; Richards, 2015), copyright (i.e., Slater, 2017), and trends (i.e., Ferchaud et al., 2018).

Commerce and Industry

As an increasing number of microcelebrities are turning to parlay their online fame into commercial enterprises, a new string of works are now investigating the process of commercialism in the industry. These include studies on becoming a microcelebrity (i.e., Bakke, 2017; Li, 2018; Meylinda, 2017; van de Put, 2017; Wang, 2017), monetization (i.e., Chen et al., 2017; Hopkins, 2019), branding and self-branding (i.e., Booth & Matic, 2011; Chandawarkar et al., 2018; Khamis et al., 2017; Mercer, 2018), professionalism (i.e., Bingham, 2017), audiencing and follower engagement (i.e., Blight, 2016; Gkoni et al., 2017; Marwick & boyd, 201...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Contributor Biographies
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue
• Part I: Norms
• Part II: Labor
• Part III: Activism
• Index