Abstract
‘I want to become a YouTuber’. It is not uncommon these days for a child to dream about becoming a YouTuber from a fairly young age. As a 7-year-old boy explained, it looks like a very attractive job – you record yourself while playing ‘cool’ games and earn a lot of money. Are famous YouTubers the only Internet celebrities, though? Who classifies as an Internet celebrity? Crystal Abidin tackles these questions in her short book on Internet celebrity and online fame. She argues that in the 2010s most conversations and press coverage about Internet celebrities have revolved around one particular type of celebrity: ‘The Influencer’ (p. 1). She defines Influencers as ‘the epitome of internet celebrities, given that they make a living from being celebrities to and on the internet’ (p. 1). However, in Abidin’s view, ‘internet celebrity is a far broader concept with a much longer history than that of Influencers’ (p. 1). The aim of the book is to present ‘an updated, bird’s-eye view of what contemporary internet celebrity and fame online look like’ (p. xx). It is not aimed just at an academic audience but also at ‘keen followers of the Influencer scene’, people who work in the industry and ‘casual readers’ (p. xx). It uses a range of case studies both from the Global North and from the Global South – Australia, England, Sweden, United States, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The book focuses on a few social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube. It is split into four chapters: ‘What is an Internet Celebrity Anyway’, ‘Qualities of Internet Celebrity’, ‘Internet Celebrity and Traditional Media’ and ‘From Internet Celebrities to Influencers’. The first chapter provides a brief theoretical overview of the concept of Internet celebrity. Abidin reminds us that celebrities are social constructions and not innate qualities ‘gifted to extraordinary people’ (p. 4). She argues that ‘the construction of celebrity is supported by intentional media coverage on a person, that turns them into a commodity, where the public is massaged to take interest in them continually’ (p. 4). Abidin argues that although everyone has the potential to become a microcelebrity, six measures distinguish Internet celebrities from microcelebrities: (1) Scale – ‘today it is not uncommon for internet celebrities to rival or surpass traditional celebrities in terms of global popularity or reach’. (2) Platform – Internet celebrities ‘are increasingly crossing between various estates on social and traditional media platforms to maintain their following’. (3) Audiences – they are building audiences on a global scale. (4) Nature – ‘many internet celebrities are presently pursuing fame professionally as a vocation’. (5) Practice – ‘internet celebrities are fronting both “anchor” thematic content in which they demonstrate their talents and skills, and “filler” emotional content in which they display snippets of everyday life to maintain a sense of ordinariness’. (6) Impact – much bigger than that of microcelebrities to the point where they are ‘even setting up sizable businesses where they wield influence in boardrooms’ (pp. 14–15). In Chapter 2, she describes four main types of Internet celebrities: exclusive, exotic, exceptional and everyday. Chapter 3 then explores the relationship between Internet celebrities and traditional media. This time the focus is on five different types of Internet celebrities: eyewitness viral stars, meme personalities, spotted and groomed investments, crowd-puller cameos and weaponized microcelebrity. The final chapter then focuses on the so-called Influencers – ‘vocational, sustained and highly branded social media stars’ (p. 71) – and the industry surrounding them. In the Postface, Abidin claims that we currently live both in the ‘Golden Age and the Dark Age of the industry’ of internet celebrity’ (p. 99). On the one hand, ‘the promise of possibly becoming an internet celebrity, for whatever rhyme or reason, seems a lot more attainable than it was a decade ago’ because the industry is much more structured, regulated and organized. On the other hand, the industry ‘has been plagued by onslaughts of controversies in the last few years, as questions of authenticity, transparency, and sincerity on the internet have been called into question every time a new scandal has erupted’ (p. 99). Abidin’s book provides a welcome and engaging contribution to a rapidly developing field, and it will be indeed of interest not just to an academic audience but to general readers as well.