In a world where we are becoming more conscious of how we
present ourselves and how others perceive us (Marshal, 2010), the idea of a “specular
economy” is evident because it’s not only celebrities that take that into
account when using social media.
When celebrity news was regulated through printing press,
appearances at events and tv shows, it was controlled, regulated, owned and accountable.
Celebrities had managers who would make the best decisions in the interest of
the social status of that celebrity so they wouldn’t lose fans or be
scrutinized. For example, yes we all know paparazzi has been around for a long
time, but in previous years the photographer would have to make his way to the
publishing company and the editor would decide whether or not it was news
worthy. However, nowadays everyone who has access to the internet is a ‘journalist’
(maybe not so much qualified or trained in the field) but is in effect, a reporter
for the world. When the rise of social media came up such as twitter in 2008,
celebrities became more accessible by the public through tweets and small talk.
This doesn’t happen for all celebrities, but some in fact
check posts that they are tagged in. For example, fitness model Valeria Orsini
likes posts that she’s tagged in on instagram.
Most, if not all celebrities have a team managing their
facebook, twitter or instagram account. This means that either a) the celeb uses
social media as a front to seem like they are engaging with the community or b)
they do this to protect themselves from any unwanted publicity.
Reference List:
Marshal, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47,
no. 6, pp. 498-502
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