Critical
Blog Post 2:-
Marwick,
A. & boyd, d. (2011). To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies,
17(2), 139–158.
The use
of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by celebrities
to communicate with their fan bases is becoming an increasingly widespread
practice. Rather than previously having to go through the filters of their
management or news media, celebrities can instead now speak directly and
immediately to their fans and online followers, seemingly allowing revealing
glimpses into their everyday lives, and potentially appearing more within reach
than before. For some celebrities, their skillful use of social media can
result in large responses from their online audiences .In some of these
instances, the example of Lady Gaga and her activist efforts that engage large
amounts of her online fans, these responses can often involve explicit and
direct action, rather than simple ‘re-tweets’, or ‘likes’ (which, it could be
argued, can still possess a fair degree of importance generally with regard to
making people aware of causes). In an age where ‘likes’ and ‘re-tweets’ are
very often the currency of activity and are somewhat easy to perform.
There’s
video resulted in fans recording them phoning their own senators (some of whom
had never contacted them before, or even knew who they were), urging friends
and neighbors to also phone and leave messages, and then placing the videos on Twitter
and YouTube, in an effort to reach a wider audience. Other fans posted video
responses to these (Re-tweet), and they were all then collated in an official
playlist by Gaga, with another message thanking her fans and urging them to
keep inspiring others to also call their senators.
This
example demonstrates how powerful and meaningful the reach of celebrity/fan
activism through social media can be, when both parties work together as
partners through these platforms towards an activist cause. In sum, this
skilled use of social media by celebrities such as Lady Gaga to engage their
fans and followers in activism is working to reshape our traditional understandings
of the possibilities of engagement and action. Communication and motivation are
now able to flow directly and horizontally between celebrity and fans, rather
than through the filtered and vertical, primarily top-down manner evident
pre-social media. Finally, and most
significantly, it is through this process that some fans can be given a strong
insight into the potential change they can make as citizens, and instigate
their vital and empowering first connections to political and public figures.
Anyway, I was really
enjoy the interactive with my idol in twitter, do you?
Reference:
To See
and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter
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