MA and PhD theses on cultures of internet celebrity.

Posted on by wishcrys

Moshimoshi folks,

I have just spent several days poring through a crop of MA and PhD theses by postgraduates around the world who are studying cultures of internet celebrity, microcelebrity, and influencers. I was really excited by this steady stream of pre-published or soon-to-be published works on emergent and cutting-edge practices that have been so swiftly archived and analysed by these early career researchers.

If it is helpful, I list these references and their publicly-available links (mostly Open Access via the authors’ institutional repositories) below. If you have a thesis to add to the list, please feel free to comment. If you are nearly completing a thesis on any aspect of internet celebrity, I would love to hear from you (especially if you focus on cultures outside of the US and UK).

Here is a paragraph summarising this crop of theses, lifted from a forthcoming piece of mine to be published in December 2018 in ‘Abidin, Crystal, and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds). (forthcoming, 2018). Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.’

“Focusing on how commerce and industry are impact microcelebrity-audience relations are Neal’s (2017) thesis on Instagram influencers and sponsorship, Mustonen’s (2017) thesis on YouTubers coming out to fan communities, Sedláček’s (2016) thesis on how YouTubers’ audiences are shifting away from TV practices, and Bruijn’s (2016) thesis on how YouTubers are negotiating a balance between commercialism and authenticity. Considering the cultures of microcelebrity on newer social media platforms are Gkoni et al.’s (2017) thesis on Snapchat and emoji use as ‘fam’ subcultures, Bingham’s (2017) thesis on practices of professionalism among Twitch microcelebrities, Blight’s (2016) thesis on community building across streaming platforms, and van de Put’s (2017) thesis on the process of becoming a celebrity on Musical.ly. Finally, looking outside of the Anglo-centric U.S. and Euro-centric U.K. are Bakke’s (2017) thesis on commercial bloggers in Norway, Meng’s (2014) and Wang’s (2017) theses looking at wanghong on Weibo in China, Meylinda’s (2017) thesis looking at beauty vlogs in South Korea, and Limkangvanmongkol’s (2018) thesis looking at beauty bloggers’ practices in Thailand. As newer cohorts of postgraduates and early career researchers delve deeper into the cultural and political complexities of microcelebrity practices in their parts of the world, one can be assured of generations of critical works on cultures of internet celebrity from around the globe.”

* Continue reading MA and PhD theses on cultures of internet celebrity.

Readings on the politics of knowledge production.

Posted on by wishcrys

Moshimoshi friends,

I am feeling a little brave after writing on the need for postcolonial research on internet celebrity, drawing from Edward Said (1978), Gayatri Spivak (1993), Raewyn Connell (2007, 2014), Daya Thussu (2006, 2009), Koichi Iwabuchi (2002), and Christine Yano (2013). If it’s helpful, refs are below.

I would love to read more in this vein on the politics of knowledge production and cultural circulation, so please feel free to beep me your recommendations. Tack!

* Continue reading Readings on the politics of knowledge production.

Where is the money on Tumblr? (part 1)

Posted on by wishcrys

Hi folks!

I am at the International Communication Association conference (#ica18) this week. I gave my talk this morning but felt really unsatisfied with it, mostly because while I was speaking I suddenly saw a new way of reframing my approach and liked that so much better. And so, to soothe my soul and also to braindump everything so I don’t forget the magic, I am going to speed blog my thoughts as a stream of consciousness here (as such, please excuse the lack of references, especially to the very good emerging scholarship on Tumblr, etc. But feel free to drop me an email if you would like to be pointed to further resources).

The talk was entitled “Where is the money on Tumblr? Cultures of celebrity and labour in Tumblr’s architecture” and I hope to polish it into a publishable version soon.

If you would like to familiarize yourself with my prior work on Influencer cultures and internet celebrity, click through here.  Continue reading Where is the money on Tumblr? (part 1)

Internal monologues from conferencing as a POC ECR.

Posted on by wishcrys

Stimuli: “You are really confident for a Chinese student!”

Immediate emotional response: Okay, I guess this is happening again. Another conference, another social interaction, another stranger, another casual racism.

Immediate facework: Pretend you didn’t hear them. Just smile for a few split seconds. Hold on, body. We’re working this out. Just limbo for a while, okay? Continue reading Internal monologues from conferencing as a POC ECR.

New pop article: Layers of Identity

Posted on by wishcrys

Moshimoshi folks,

My latest piece for Real Life is on Influencer culture: On how to look extremely real when you are extremely online.

Read Layers of Identity: How to be “real” when everyone is watching, as part of the week’s series on Influencers.

“for influencers to convince an audience that they are being authentic, it is not enough for them to merely show themselves without “artifice”: barefaced, with a bedhead, and in pajamas. Instead, they must actively juxtapose this stripped-down version of themselves against the median and normative self-presentations of glamour, to continually create and assign value to new markers — faults and flaws, failures and fiascos — to affirm the veracity of their truth-ness.”

“An audience is enticed into trying to evaluate and validate how genuine a persona is by following the feedback loop across the front stage of social media and the backstage of “real life,” through inconspicuous and scattered holes or gateways that were intentionally left as trails for the curious.”

/C