Anti-fandom in the Xiaxue empire: A celebrity blogger and her haters

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hattie Liew

The advent of the Internet and user-generated platforms has facilitated the rise of a new breed of celebrity. Bloggers, YouTubers and Instagram stars, armed with their laptops and smartphones, represent an important part of the contemporary media landscape. This article will investigate Singaporean social media influencer Wendy Cheng, known by her pseudonym, Xiaxue. Starting her Internet career as a blogger in 2003, Xiaxue has built a massive online presence over multiple platforms and is arguably one of the most commercially successful Internet celebrities in her country. Her thriving Internet career implies the presence of a large follower and fan base. However, we will look at the other side of the coin ‐ the anti-fans ‐ an often-neglected segment of users in the study of Internet celebrity. These anti-fans, individuals who strongly dislike Xiaxue, can be just as engaged and committed as fans, albeit in different ways. This article will analyse user comments on Xiaxue’s online video channel Xiaxue’s Guide to Life, and anti-fan platform Guru Gossip’s Abhorred Bloggers (Xiaxue) forum. Findings show that Xiaxue’s anti-fandom is driven by a moral economy related to her self-presentation, femininity and nature of her celebrity.

Author(s):  
Zemfira K. Salamova ◽  

Social media has contributed to the spread of fashion, style or lifestyle blogging around the world. This study focuses on self-presentation strategies of Russian-speaking fashion bloggers. Its objects are Instagram accounts and YouTube channels of two Russian fashion bloggers: Alexander Rogov and Karina Nigay. The study also observes their appearances as guests in various interview shows on YouTube. Alexander Rogov received his initial fame through his television projects. Karina Nigay achieved popularity online on YouTube and Instagram, therefore she is a “pure” example of Internet celebritiy, whose rise to fame took place on the Internet. The article includes the following objectives 1) to study the self-branding of fashion bloggers on various online platforms; 2) to analyze the construction of fashion bloggers’ expert positions and its role in their personal brands. Turning to fashion blogging allows us to consider how its representatives build their personal brands and establish themselves as experts in the field of fashion and style in Russianlanguage social media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-185
Author(s):  
Matt St. John

Abstract This article explores the Instagram activities of Agnès Varda and her Visages Villages (Faces Places, France, 2017) codirector JR to consider the role of social media in the film's theatrical release and awards campaign, which led to the film's nomination for Best Documentary Feature—Varda's first and only Academy Award nomination. Through analysis of Varda's posts and her appearances on JR's Instagram, the author argues that social media complemented the film's conventional promotion while extending Varda's aesthetic practices and interests, offering one of the final examples of her consistent, enthusiastic experiments with new forms of media. On Instagram, Varda recycled and recontextualized the strategies of self-presentation and formal play seen in her documentaries for a different format, as she posted images and videos involving premieres, special events, and press coverage from her perspective. Throughout the film's release and awards campaign, social media began to function as an atypical way to draw attention to the film and its directors, especially for a low-budget documentary. The Visages Villages team merged traditional methods of achieving visibility with an unusual and intentional online presence, culminating in substantial coverage from new types of outlets when JR traveled to the Academy Awards luncheon with cardboard cutouts of Varda.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Franciska Krings ◽  
Irina Gioaba ◽  
Michèle Kaufmann ◽  
Sabine Sczesny ◽  
Leslie Zebrowitz

Abstract. The use of social networking sites such as LinkedIn in recruitment is ubiquitous. This practice may hold risks for older job seekers. Not having grown up using the internet and having learned how to use social media only in middle adulthood may render them less versed in online self-presentation than younger job seekers. Results of this research show some differences and many similarities between younger and older job seekers' impression management on their LinkedIn profiles. Nevertheless, independent of their impression management efforts, older job seekers received fewer job offers than younger job seekers. Only using a profile photo with a younger appearance reduced this bias. Implications for the role of job seeker age in online impression management and recruitment are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Masłyk

Abstract The main purpose of this article is to present the results of research concerning the use of social media by companies from the SME sector in Podkarpackie Province. The article includes data obtained in the first stage of the study, which is a part of a research project on the use of social media in the area of creating the image of an organization / company as an employer.The survey covered the entire population of companies from the SME sector, which are registered in Podkarpackie Province (REGON database). The research phase, the results of which are presented in this article, mainly involved the analysis of data on companies from the SME sector in Podkarpackie Province in terms of their presence on the Internet (having an individual website, having company profiles on selected social networks). The results of the first stage of the study confirm that the companies see the potential of the online presence / functioning in social media (more and more companies have their own website, Facebook profiles). The dynamics of changes in this area is definitely not adequate to the pace of new media development. On the basis of preliminary results of further stages of the research, it can also be concluded that in the vast majority of cases, however, these are non-strategic and non-systematic activities.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Erin Duffy ◽  
Jefferson Pooley

By analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation. Leo Lowenthal, in his well-known analysis of popular magazine biographies, identified a marked shift in mass-mediated exemplars of success: from self-made industrialists and politicians (idols of production) to screen stars and athletes (idols of consumption). Adapting his approach, we draw upon a qualitative analysis of magazine biographies (People and Time, n = 127) and social media bios (Instagram and Twitter, n = 200), supplemented by an inventory of television talk show guests (n = 462). Today's idols, we show, blend Lowenthal's predecessor types: they hail from the sphere of consumption, but get described –and describe themselves –in production terms. We term these new figures “idols of promotion,” and contend that their stories of self-made success –the celebrations of promotional pluck –are parables for making it in a precarious employment economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Santho Vlennery Mettan ◽  
Aldo Hardi Sancoko

Indonesian’s Millennials are estimated to reach 70% of the productive population in 2020-2030 (BPS 2018), who cannot be separated from the internet and social media (Harahap 2017). Due to this fact, (Hsu 2018) and (Benini 2018) claim that millennials are afraid of being left behind by ephemeral content which will disappear within 24 hours so that many social media platforms are equipped with these temporary content features and companies are using temporary content strategies to reach more consumers. SMEs on the other hand have low knowledge of ephemeral content, even though 84% of millennials buy products due to the influence of social media, where ephemeral content lies within (Boen 2016). In the other hand, word-of-mouth has a significant impact on customer purchasing decisions until now. Along with the change to the digital era, word-of-mouth is being accelerated with the help of the internet, it called e-WOM, where many businesses use social media or other online platforms to promote business. The results showed that the two variables of ephemeral content and word-of-mouth with the help of the internet had a significant effect on customer purchase intentions, especially the millennial customer for SMEs in Surabaya City. In the future, by implementing ephemeral content in SMEs media social will increases their customer’s e-WOM.


Author(s):  
Lauren Rosewarne

Despite the widespread embrace of the Internet and the second nature way we each turn to Google for information, to social media to see our friends, to netporn and Netflix for recreation, film and television tells a very different story. On screen, a character dating online, gaming online or shopping online, invariably serves as a clue that they’re somewhat troubled: they may be a socially excluded nerd at one end of the spectrum, through to being a paedophile or homicidal maniac seeking prey at the other. On screen, the Internet is frequently presented as a clue, a risk factor and a rationale for a character’s deviance or danger. While the Internet has come to play a significant role in screen narratives, an undercurrent of many depictions – in varying degrees of fervour – is that the Web is complicated, elusive and potentially even hazardous. This paper draws from research conducted for my book Cyberbullies, Cyberactivists, Cyberpredators: Film, TV, and Internet Stereotypes (Rosewarne, 2016). While that volume provided an analysis of the denizens of the Internet through the examination of over 500 film and television examples – profiling screen stereotypes such as netgeeks, neckbeards, and netaddicts – this paper focuses on some of the recurring themes in portrayals of the Internet, shedding light on the how, and perhaps most importantly why, the fear of the technology is so common. This paper presents a series of themes used to frame the Internet as negative on screen including dehumanisation, the Internet as a badlands, the Web as possessing inherent vulnerabilities and the cyberbogeyman.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
John Hill

Understanding political communication using a networked model is not simply a case of opposing linear with nonlinear communication, of mainstream media with social media, or television with the internet. Rather it is about seeing the whole of the communication system as complex, unstable and indeterminate. Networked communication includes within it both broadcast and dialogue but does not separate them out. Each part of the system has the capacity to determine the potential of the other, with meaning a product of the change they effect on the system as a whole. Understanding broadcast as existing within a networked model reopens the potential for invention that the statistical model of information must foreclose in order to function.


Author(s):  
Robert R. Bianchi

The recent uprisings in Iran provide a poignant example of a common dilemma in authoritarian regimes. The mullahs and security forces can contain the blazes with Chinese-inspired controls over the internet and social media, but they cannot prevent future ignitions or rule out a wider conflagration. On the other hand, reformers have little hope of winning meaningful freedoms or promoting a less adventurous foreign policy. There is no sign of an authoritarian silver bullet to quash unrest or of a revolutionary breakthrough that could propel the country in a new direction. As Beijing expands the New Silk Road, it confronts similar problems in one country after another. Stronger linkages between domestic politics and transnational relations promote ongoing turmoil and crisis management across interdependent regions and cultures. Although this represents an important surge in transcontinental connectivity, it is hardly the kind that Chinese planners anticipated.


2019 ◽  
pp. 089443931987356
Author(s):  
Ben Wasike

Altmetrics are a relatively new phenomenon in research. These metrics measure the attention that research articles receive from nontraditional venues such as social media and the Internet. This study examined how these metrics affect both the readership and citation of articles in communication research. The study examined citation data alongside altmetrics data from academic social networking sites ResearchGate and Mendeley, as well as mentions on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Results indicated that all altmetrics positively correlated with citation. Posting articles on sites such as ResearchGate and Mendeley not only impacted readership, it increased the likelihood of citation. Other variables that improved readership and citation were social media mentions, downloadable articles, coauthorship, and an active online presence among scholars.


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