Internet Celebrity

Crystal Abidin is Postdoctoral Fellow with the Media Management and Transformation Centre (MMTC) at Jönköping University, Sweden, and Adjunct Researcher with the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) at Curtin University, Australia. As a socio-cultural anthropologist of vernacular internet cultures, particularly young people’s relationships with internet celebrity, self-curation, and vulnerability, she has published extensively on Influencers, a multimedia form of vocational internet celebrity, and is currently working on projects in East Asia, Australia, and Scandinavia.

This book examines contemporary internet celebrity and fame, with examples from China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, England, Sweden, and the US and platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube. It explains what internet celebrity is, including its history; the qualities of internet celebrity, focusing on exclusivity, exoticism, exceptionalism, and everydayness; the relationship between internet celebrity and traditional media, with discussion of common types of internet celebrity (viral stars, meme personalities, spotted and groomed investments, crowd-puller cameos, and weaponized microcelebrity); and influencers and the influencer industry.

• Chapter 1. What is an Internet Celebrity any way? Chapter 2. Qualities of Internet Celebrity Chapter 3. Internet Celebrity and Traditional Media Chapter 4. From Internet Celebrities to Influencers