Celebrities and the Specular Economy

Celebrities have adapted their behavior as their use of Social Media has increased. We have been submerged in a Specular economy for a substantial amount of time, but the growth of Social Media has pushed us (us being us, you know, the ordinary people) and celebrities into new Micro publics, where we now a hold yet another persona. This rapid rise in Social Media has meant celebrities have changed the way they publicise themselves, and even the way they live their everyday lives. 

It is inherently difficult to answer the question of exactly how celebrities have changed in response to new media; for the changes are endless. 
As a child of the Social Media Revolution it is difficult for me to comment on the differences in ‘Celebrity’ and how they have changed in recent times because to me, the online Specular economy is the norm. Research though, and basic knowledge, show that ‘Celebrity’ has changed since the rise of new Media, and even in the past 5 or so years, the rise of Celebrity and their personal brands has grown dramatically as more and more people use social media sites. The use of Social Media by stars has become almost a necessity for celebrities, and for most people, for that matter. Sites like Twitter allow the rest of the world an insight into the life of the famous that was previously much more measured through ‘old’ media. It is, however, questionable as to how real the information that fans receive from stars on social Media is, or whether what we see is only the parts they want us to see, their persona.

Inevitably, all users of Social Media are active in the Specular Economy, whether purposely or not. David Marshall describes it as us becoming collectively "more conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us" (2010, p. 498) and I know personally I do this every time I pick up my phone to check Facebook. I am sure that my friends and peers, in fact most of my generation, do this too. Social Media, and particularly the more popular sites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have created technological shifts in the way that people now communicate and engage with contemporary culture (Marshall, p. 498, 2011). This means that us users are able to manage our personas more actively than we are able to in ‘real’ life, and allows celebrities to be more involved in the management of their “personal brand” (Bercovici, 2011). As Marshall says, the Internet has provided a new medium to send "messages and images outwards that circumvent the gatekeeping and control mechanisms" (2010, p. 498) that are associated with old media such as print. Celebrities are no longer as powerless in the creation of the public persona as they were when Magazines and Paparazzi were some of the few sources of Celebrity stories/photos/gossip.

Just this month Fergie (of Black Eyed Peas fame) posted a photo of her Newborn son to Social Media with the hashtag #paparazziyoucanleaveourhousenow, circumventing the traditional first photo that the paparazzi tend to vie for. In many ways this particular use of Twitter allows celebrities much more freedom than they ever have before – changing their persona entirely. Marshall (2011, p. 502) describes this idea; a

New form of celebrity that embraces the sensation of being always accessible well beyond the interventions of now weakened intermediaries of paparazzi and gossip columnists. The specular economy has produced a new regime of personal presentation that we are only beginning to see its profound implications.

This definition aids in explaining how celebrities have changed since they began using Social Media as part of their Public Relations. They use these sites to portray to their fans any and only the information that the want the public to see, in some ways decreasing the demand for older media techniques like glossy magazines. While Twitter use is far from universal, a recent Pew Internet study showed that one in five Internet users is now using either Twitter or a similar status updating program (Forrestal, 2011 as cited in Stever & Lawson, 2013, p.340), fans can now experience a direct social interaction with their favourite celebrities that they couldn’t as easily before through Twitter and alike. Stever and Lawson (2013, p. 339) discuss this “parasocial interaction” where “unreciprocated interaction between individuals of differing status and knowledge of one another” is prevalent. Celebrities can put news or information out into the public sphere and give their fans the feeling of interaction. As Hargittai & Litt (2011, p. 825) observed, “users can follow one another’s content without reciprocal obligation,” a point that is especially important when one of the users is a celebrity and typically the communication is only one way. This enables stars to manage their personality by giving fans what they want, an insight into their life. We have become a society of spectacle (Debord as cited in Marshall, 2001, p. 501) and the portrayal of celebrities through their personal accounts has allowed for this to happen.

Now celebrities, and us mere mortals too, have the power to an extent, to control what is projected into the media, particular social media. At this point in time celebrities are posting their personal photos to Instagram, or their ideas to their own websites and blogs - showing their fans what they otherwise may not see, or would have been provided with through second hand sources such as Magazines. It has been said that it was Celebrities who started the craze that is Twitter, a critical event for the mainstreaming of Twitter “was when Oprah Winfrey publicized her account on TV in the fall of 2008” (Stever & Lawson, 2013, p. 341). While these social Media sites may have started as simply a more direct way to interact with fans, and circumvent traditional media, the sheer masses that celebrities gain in Twitter following’s shows just how much they can impact their brand and how they now monitor their behavior on Social Media. Justin Bieber has approximately 45,000,000 followers on Twitter (Twitter counter, 2013), at this point, and actually well before Justin will have changed his behaviors on Twitter as he is being watched by so many, and Social Media becomes yet another Public Relations forum where his persona is managed and the Specular idea comes into play. To some extent, with celebrities like Bieber, who potentially do not manage their brand as well as other celebrities, perhaps they have not changed in ways that other celebrities have. Katy Perry is an example of of change, with 40,000,000 million Twitter followers her Tweets are far more measured and to an extent less personalised, because she is possibly more aware, or just cares more about what she is projecting out to the public.


(Screenshot: Justin Bieber Twitter account. https://twitter.com/justinbieber)

While I can see the benefits for a celebrity to share of their own accord, is this driving public demand for juicy details? Now that we get to see what the famous are really like does this intensify the Celebrity culture as Marshall suggests (2012, p. 499)? I think it does. For example, Shane Warne and Liz Hurley apparently share a lot of information about their relationship on Twitter, they don't Tweet each other for a week or so, and everyone wants to know more about their business and rumours that they are breaking up start to spread (Stephenson & Dowling, 2013). The mirror effect is having a broader implication on Celebrities, the more they manage their persona by sharing their own information first hand, the more details we then want. The same can be said by the way that any information can “catch fire in real time in Social Media” (Dumenco, 2012) as even one image can go viral in minutes, and celebrities have thus changed to be aware of that. When Niall Horan (from the band One direction) was spotted in Melbourne on a personal Holiday a picture of him was uploaded on Twitter and Social Media went into melt down. The hashtag #niallsinmelbourne was used so that fans could track any sightings of him (Wright, 2013) and any subsequent photos of him also went viral through mobile media. These aforementioned technological shifts (Marshall, 2010, p. 498) mean that the circumstance of celebrity has changed and allows them even less privacy, so much so that they are now aware of other people using Social Media, not just their own uses. So in anything they are doing celebrities now can only project measured and controlled personas because what ever they do will be captured and reflected against them.

As the rise of Social and Mobile Media grows celebrities will continue to change, as will all users. These technological shifts have made us more aware of what we are doing, what is being captured and what is being projected online, creating your persona. For celebrities this is magnified as the whole world watches them. Celebrities aid in both the popularity of these sites and the popularity of themselves by feeding, sometimes streaming information to their fans. This stream of information is only creating more want by fans and requires more management by celebrity to ensure that the information given will only help their personal brand. Some celebrities are able to manage this well, others are not, but inevitably, all celebrities have shifted their behaviors in response to the current ways we use social Media.

References

Bercovici, J 2011, The Celebrity 100: Social Media Over- and Under-Achievers, Forbes.Com, p. 62. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=822cc9ba-0288-41a0-8cd1-8367ddfaab3c%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=65508990

Dumenco, S 2012, Imagine a world without Justin Bieber; it's easy if you try. #worldwithoutbieber, Advertising Age, vol. 83 (37), p. 1. DOI: 00018899

Hargittai, E. & Litt, E., 2011. The tweet smell of celebrity success:
Explaining variation in Twitter adoption among a diverse group of young adults, New Media & Society, retrieved from http://www.webuse.org/pdf/HargittaiLitt-TwitterAdoptionNMSPreprint.pdf

Marshal, P.D 2010, The Specular Economy, Society, vol. 47, (6), p. 498-502.

Stephenson, A. & Dowling, J (2013, September 18). Shane Warne says rumours of split with Liz Hurley ‘absolute rubbish’. News.com.au, retrieved from http://www.news.com.au

Stever, G, & Lawson, K 2013, Twitter as a Way for Celebrities to Communicate with Fans: Implications for the Study of Parasocial Interaction, North American Journal Of Psychology, vol. 15 (2), p. 339-354. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=665a436f-7c2d-45b1-b42c-f3b8e900f10e%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=87531068

Twitter counter (2013). Twitter top 100 Most followed. Retrieved October 4^th 2013 from http://twittercounter.com/pages/100

Wright, J. (2013, September 10). One Direction's Niall Horan holidaying in Melbourne, Twitter speculation suggests. The Sydney Morning Herald, retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au