scholarly journals A clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy Tse ◽  
Vivienne Leung ◽  
Kimmy Cheng ◽  
Joey Chan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Online Audiences ◽  
A Site ◽  
Self Presentations ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Identity Production

In meeting the changing demands of authenticity and visibility in social media, performances of identity and connections are discussed to entail new sociotechnical labours and digital literacies. Research has looked into the construction and presentation of celebrity identities, in light of these developments, but has paid little attention on the celebrities’ experiences and perspectives, which is also due to the lack of willingness of industry insiders in this culturally sensitive business to be interviewed and genuinely talk about its problems. Twelve in-depth interviews with celebrities and entertainment industry practitioners were conducted between 2014 and 2015. Particularly, this article draws on the cases of two established celebrities in Hong Kong and China, and assesses how and why they were unable to actively construct and perform their preferred media identities, highlighting the blurring boundaries among traditional celebrities, micro-celebrities and ordinary people for their construction of online identities through social media, and also elucidating the opportunities and challenges posed by today’s evolving media environment. We argue that social media only superficially open up a site of counter-narratives for celebrities to resist the identities imposed on them by the mainstream media and online audiences. The interviewed celebrities’ contradictory experiences in their self-presentations in social media offer alternative angles to understanding the incoherent and unstable celebrity identity production processes, the blurring boundaries between celebrities and ordinary people through such processes as well as the celebrities’ capacity to reclaim control in asserting their ‘true’ selves.

scholarly journals Native Advertising—The Formats and Types of Content Most Demanded by Brands in the Spanish Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-544
Author(s):  
Daniel Zomeño ◽  
Rocío Blay-Arráez
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Editorial Content ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Formats ◽  
Depth Interviews

Media convergence and the incorporation of new narratives typical of the consumption habits of younger audiences in the social media environment have led to the proliferation of a wide variety of formats and types of content in the media ecosystem through which the editorial content offered to brands is being distributed. This qualitative research, using in-depth interviews with a qualified sample of branded content managers from the main Spanish media, allows us to determine the main characteristics of the native advertising demanded by advertisers. The results corroborate observations that content channelled through more sophisticated consumption experiences, using both multimedia and interactivity with a clear transmedia approach, tends to be better received by the audience and, therefore, in greater demand by brands. It also confirms that both video and social media formats have grown exponentially when it comes to providing an outlet for branded content. Based on the results obtained, a proposed classification of these products, including definitions, has been drawn up so they can be publicised to the professional world, offering the reflection and precision that their rapid development has not allowed until now.

Playing to the Crowd

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy K. Baym
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
Professional Musicians ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Online Audiences ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
And Control ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Increased Pressure

In Playing to the Crowd, Nancy K. Baym examines the shift toward more personal connections with audiences, offering an entirely new approach to media cultures and industries as she does. The book argues that workers in many fields are under increased pressure get online and connect with others to further their careers, a trend that musicians have long led. Using a dialectical framework, the book draws on in depth-interviews with a range of professional musicians and other qualitative methods to show how the rise of digital communication platforms transformed artist-fan relationships into something that can feel personal. Part I explores music as a means of communication and as a commodity, drawing out the tension between its social and commercial values. Part II looks at audiences, showing how they developed fandoms in the 20th century, how those fandoms came online, and the tension between participation and control musicians experience when they encounter online audiences. Part III looks at relationships, examining how, in contrast to the concert hall environment in which musicians and audiences may one have met, social media create a new potential and pressure for everyday, intimate relating and how musicians manage the tensions between closeness and distance this creates. Ultimately, the book argues that the relational labor musicians do is a significant mode of work, one which requires resources, skills, and strategies we must all understand.

Bad News

2021 ◽  
pp. 240-260
Author(s):  
Debasish Roy Chowdhury ◽  
John Keane
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Bharatiya Janata Party ◽  
Media Communications

This chapter examines Indian media. Communications scholars have long argued that media sets the agenda for public opinion, first by drawing the attention of citizens to a particular issue, and then by defining it by means of comprehensible media ‘frames’ that act as cognitive shortcuts to understand issues. As in other so-called democracies, journalists working within India’s mainstream media are engaged 24/7 in framing narratives, making them indispensable for any government. Anti-Muslim messaging, generally subtle, has been the default media frame ever since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. This coincided with the coming of communicative abundance, the profusion of new communication networks and technologies, and rapidly changing media consumption habits. Secretive organizations frame sophisticated misinformation campaigns to spread fake news and false claims through social media. In such a media environment marked by features common to despotisms like Vietnam, Iran, and Russia, where independent journalism is all but dead, self-censorship and toad-eating are rife.

scholarly journals Social Media Representations of the Pilgrimage to Mecca

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Kholoud Al-Ajarma ◽  
Marjo Buitelaar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
National Media ◽  
Self Presentations

Abstract In this article, we compare representations of the pilgrimage to Mecca posted on Facebook and Youtube by ‘ordinary’ pilgrims from Morocco and (semi)professional bloggers of Moroccan parentage in the Netherlands. We discuss how such posts challenge representations that circulate in the mainstream media in both countries about Islam in general and the hajj in particular. For Morocco we demonstrate that this kind of digital mediation of pilgrimage contests the ways in which the state-organized hajj is framed in Morocco’s national media. For the Netherlands, we argue that bloggers deconstruct dominant images of the Muslim ‘other’ in their self-presentations as specifically Dutch Muslim pilgrims by connecting the meanings they attribute to the pilgrimage to Mecca to universal issues.

scholarly journals Managing Social Networks in Online-Native Newsrooms: When Less Means More

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Mendez ◽  
Bella Palomo ◽  
Agustin Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Digital Native ◽  
Great Expectations ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Social ◽  
Longitudinal Approach ◽  
Depth Interviews

During the last few years online-only media have been explored as an alternative to mainstream media. The development of this new media model coincides in time with an increase in dependence on social networks. Online media editors estimate that one third of their visits proceed from Facebook, a figure that obliges them to create specific strategies to ensure their company’s reputation and growth in the 2.0 field. The aim of this article is to assess what motivates Spanish digital-native newspapers to act on social networks, analyse their internal view of these channels, and describe their strategies for managing their relationship with audiences. Based on a qualitative and longitudinal approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with the social media editors of the most relevant digital-native newspapers in Spain—<em>El Confidencial</em>, <em>Eldiario.es</em>, <em>El Español</em> and <em>El HuffPost</em>—during 2017 and 2019, in order to trace the evolution of their professional routines. These social media editors consider that although digital-native newsrooms are smaller than traditional ones, they are more agile in reacting to metrics. Our results also confirm that Instagram is generating great expectations, and the new paywall system is affecting the way audiences are understood.

Social media work: reshaping organisational communications, extracting digital value

2017 ◽  
Vol 163 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony McCosker
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hybrid Methods ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Community Management ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Work ◽  
Additional Value ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Depth Interviews

Social media platforms are associated with significant digital transformations but also carry some uncertainty for organisations seeking to capitalise on their affordances while developing new professional roles. This article explores the characteristics and contexts of social media work and the different approaches of organisations as they enter a second wave of application, moving beyond participation to data extraction within conditions of continuous connectivity and community management. The article uses hybrid methods: analysing job market data and in-depth interviews with 18 social media strategists and workers from 13 different organisations. The analysis is informed by critical accounts of digital labour, and emphasises organisations’ strategic search for new affordances such as analytics that extract additional value from carefully managed communities. The findings reveal how social media work has become diffused across industries, and is understood ‘ecologically’, as a capability that operates right across organisations within a dynamic and changing media environment.

scholarly journals Using ZMET for Investigating the Role of Social Media in the Employment Process

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-32
Author(s):  
Magdalena Danileț ◽  
Claudia Stoian
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Employment Setting ◽  
Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of social media in the employment setting as it is perceived by the job seekers. The study is a qualitative investigation in which thirteen in-depth interviews based on Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) were conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of the link between social media and the process of employment. The 22 elicited bipolar constructs associated with the role of social media in the employment setting were framed into six deep metaphors: Connection, Resource, Journey, Control, Affective Distress and Transformation. The size of the sample and the deeply subjective nature of answers provided by the subject’s limits the generalization of the results for a wider range of job seekers in the social media environment. This research provids an insight into deep-seated motivations, attitudes and behaviors involved in the use of social media by job seekers.

Misrecognising the value of voice: anticipating inclusion beyond mainstream mediations of race and migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1160-1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Muscat
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Media Discourses ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Sydney Australia

This article addresses how mainstream media are conceptualised as a site for mediated recognition in the city of Sydney, Australia. Utilising the notion of political listening, the analysis investigates how participants position certain media outlets as misrecognising the value of diverse voices. Through in-depth interviews, the article explores how audiences discuss perceived issues of significance to society in their recall of news coverage spanning politics, migration, international conflict and local crime. First, the article clarifies how participants construct specific racialised notions of Otherness by situating their use of mainstream media discourses in the context of their everyday communicative interactions. Second, it examines how racialised frameworks are mobilised by participants to evaluate certain news media as spaces of exclusion. This article posits that the participants’ discussions of these media spaces as being integral in fostering inclusion endows the media outlets with a capacity for enhancing everyday mechanisms of mediated recognition.

Social media bots as active disseminators of COVID-19 news (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Rawi ◽  
Vishal Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Standard Terms ◽  
Official Sources

BACKGROUND In this study, we examined the activities of automated social media accounts or bots that tweet or retweet referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify bot accounts to understand the nature of messages sent by them on COVID-19. Social media bots have been widely discussed in academic literature as some kind of moral panic mostly in relation to spreading controversial and politically polarized messages or in connection to problematic health bots (Broniatowski et al., 2018; Allem & Ferrara, 2018). The findings of this study, however, show that bots that reference COVID-19 mostly mention mainstream media and credible health sources while spreading breaking news on the pandemic or urging people to stay at home. These results align with previous research on the possible benefits, advantages, or possibilities afforded by the use of health chatbots (Brandtzaeg & Følstad, 2018; Skjuve & Brandtzæg, 2018; Kretzschmar et al., 2019; Greer et al., 2019). METHODS We used a mixed approach mostly comprised of several digital methods in this study. First, we collected 50,811,299 tweets and retweets referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19 for a period of over two months from February 12 until April 18, 2020. We focused on these two hashtags because they are standard terms used by WHO and other official sources. From a total sample of over 50 million tweets, we used a mixed method to extract more than 185,000 messages posted by 127 bots. RESULTS Unlike the literature on health bots that associate them with anti-social activities, our findings show that the majority of these bots tweet, retweet and mention mainstream media outlets and credible official sources, promote health protection and telemedicine, and disseminate breaking news on the number of casualties and deaths caused by COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Despite that some literature on social media bots highlight the controversial and anti-social nature of automated accounts, the findings of this study show that the majority of bots spread news on and awareness of COVID-19 risks while citing and referencing mainstream media outlets and credible health sources. We argue that there might be financial incentives behind designing some of these bots. However and if monitored and updated with credible information by health agencies themselves, we believe that bots can be useful during health crises due to their efficiency and speed in spreading valuable information, some of which is crucial for public health. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

scholarly journals Quantifying Media Effects, Its Content, and Role in Promoting Community Awareness of Chikungunya Epidemic in Bangladesh

Epidemiologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Mst. Marium Begum ◽  
Osman Ulvi ◽  
Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic ◽  
Mallory R. Walsh ◽  
Hasan Tarek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Media Outlet ◽  
And Control

Background: Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease, mostly present in tropical and subtropical regions. The virus is spread by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitos and symptoms include high fever to severe joint pain. Dhaka, Bangladesh, suffered an outbreak of chikungunya in 2017 lasting from April to September. With the goal of reducing cases, social media was at the forefront during this outbreak and educated the public about symptoms, prevention, and control of the virus. Popular web-based sources such as the top dailies in Bangladesh, local news outlets, and Facebook spread awareness of the outbreak. Objective: This study sought to investigate the role of social and mainstream media during the chikungunya epidemic. The study objective was to determine if social media can improve awareness of and practice associated with reducing cases of chikungunya. Methods: We collected chikungunya-related information circulated from the top nine television channels in Dhaka, Bangladesh, airing from 1st April–20th August 2017. All the news published in the top six dailies in Bangladesh were also compiled. The 50 most viewed chikungunya-related Bengali videos were manually coded and analyzed. Other social media outlets, such as Facebook, were also analyzed to determine the number of chikungunya-related posts and responses to these posts. Results: Our study showed that media outlets were associated with reducing cases of chikungunya, indicating that media has the potential to impact future outbreaks of these alpha viruses. Each media outlet (e.g., web, television) had an impact on the human response to an individual’s healthcare during this outbreak. Conclusions: To prevent future outbreaks of chikungunya, media outlets and social media can be used to educate the public regarding prevention strategies such as encouraging safe travel, removing stagnant water sources, and assisting with tracking cases globally to determine where future outbreaks may occur.

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