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Article: A clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media

TitleA clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media
Authors
KeywordsAuthentic self
celebrity culture
Hong Kong
identity construction
social media
Issue Date2018
PublisherSage Publications Ltd..
Citation
Global Media and China, 2018, v. 3 n. 3, p. 141-157 How to Cite?
AbstractIn meeting the changing demands of authenticity and visibility in social media, performances of identity and connections are discussed to entail new socio-technical labours and digital literacies. Research has looked into the construction and presentation of celebrity identities, in light of these developments, but has paid little attention on the celebrities’ experiences and perspectives, which is also due to the lack of willingness of industry insiders in this culturally sensitive business to be interviewed and genuinely talk about its problems. Twelve in-depth interviews with celebrities and entertainment industry practitioners were conducted between 2014 and 2015. Particularly, this paper draws on the cases of two established celebrities in Hong Kong and China, and assesses how and why they were unable to actively construct and perform their preferred media identities, highlighting the blurring boundaries among traditional celebrities, micro-celebrities and ordinary people for their construction of online identities through social media, and also elucidating the opportunities and challenges posed by today’s evolving media environment. We argue that social media only superficially open up a site of counter-narratives for celebrities to resist the identities imposed on them by the mainstream media and online audiences. The interviewed celebrities' contradictory experiences in their self–presentations in social media, offer alternative angles to understanding the incoherent and unstable celebrity identity production processes, the blurring boundaries between celebrities and ordinary people through such processes, as well as the celebrities’ capacity to reclaim control in asserting their ‘true’ selves.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/263265
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 3.2
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.833
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorTse, HLT-
dc.contributor.authorLeung, V-
dc.contributor.authorCheng, K-
dc.contributor.authorChan, J-
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-22T07:36:09Z-
dc.date.available2018-10-22T07:36:09Z-
dc.date.issued2018-
dc.identifier.citationGlobal Media and China, 2018, v. 3 n. 3, p. 141-157-
dc.identifier.issn2059-4372-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/263265-
dc.description.abstractIn meeting the changing demands of authenticity and visibility in social media, performances of identity and connections are discussed to entail new socio-technical labours and digital literacies. Research has looked into the construction and presentation of celebrity identities, in light of these developments, but has paid little attention on the celebrities’ experiences and perspectives, which is also due to the lack of willingness of industry insiders in this culturally sensitive business to be interviewed and genuinely talk about its problems. Twelve in-depth interviews with celebrities and entertainment industry practitioners were conducted between 2014 and 2015. Particularly, this paper draws on the cases of two established celebrities in Hong Kong and China, and assesses how and why they were unable to actively construct and perform their preferred media identities, highlighting the blurring boundaries among traditional celebrities, micro-celebrities and ordinary people for their construction of online identities through social media, and also elucidating the opportunities and challenges posed by today’s evolving media environment. We argue that social media only superficially open up a site of counter-narratives for celebrities to resist the identities imposed on them by the mainstream media and online audiences. The interviewed celebrities' contradictory experiences in their self–presentations in social media, offer alternative angles to understanding the incoherent and unstable celebrity identity production processes, the blurring boundaries between celebrities and ordinary people through such processes, as well as the celebrities’ capacity to reclaim control in asserting their ‘true’ selves.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherSage Publications Ltd..-
dc.relation.ispartofGlobal Media and China-
dc.rightsGlobal Media and China. Copyright © Sage Publications Ltd..-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectAuthentic self-
dc.subjectcelebrity culture-
dc.subjectHong Kong-
dc.subjectidentity construction-
dc.subjectsocial media-
dc.titleA clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailTse, HLT: tommyt@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityTse, HLT=rp01911-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/2059436418805540-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85063333852-
dc.identifier.hkuros295835-
dc.identifier.volume3-
dc.identifier.issue3-
dc.identifier.spage141-
dc.identifier.epage157-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000510450500002-
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdom-
dc.identifier.issnl2059-4372-

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