In many ways, Twitter is a vertical communication stream. Popular accounts are generally entrenched in mainstream celebrity and traditional mass media outlets. Accounts can interact with one another but generally there’s a low rate of reciprocity between individuals and their followers; in other words, Taylor Swift’s probably not going to follow me back. The participatory element comes from the power of the retweet and the hashtag. Together, the insignificant bulk of Twitter can bind together and be noticed. A tweet, circulated by retweets, can give its author some popoularity. Generally, however, it’s difficult and ineffective to use Twitter as a … Continue reading Twitter and celebrity culture

“Today we live in a culture of celebrity where people can rise to fame from either ordinary or extraordinary circumstances” – Kelli Burns The popularity of YouTube comes from peoples desire to watch other people in real life situations, a desire cultivated by reality TV shows were real people exist and respond to real or sometimes fabricated situations and events. It isn’t exactly clear what makes a YouTube video popular and as Burns explores in this chapter ‘Connecting on YouTube, there are many random things that can spark an audiences interest literally overnight. For people wanting to become famous online, … Continue reading YouTube and Burns

While wondering what content to create to further the Cate Klancey experiment, it has been essential to understand how Youtube works from a user perspective. It’s pretty easy to search for things and watch whatever you want but to create content and have people watch it you need to be familiar with the production side of the Tube. The most popular users are also makers of their own videos and generally speaking these users have some specific interest or theme of their channel. It’s like Instagram where people with large followings, not bought, generally stick to a theme like food, … Continue reading Cates YouTube So Far

Cate’s quest for fame relies on the shifting nature of the mass in mass communication. User-generated content like her videos has always existed (eg cave paintings, family legends passed down through generations) but now it’s the users who can decide what’s – and who’s – popular. If an audience feels like they can’t interact / participate with Cate, their interest wanes. The masses are gate-keepers; they hold the power to decide (through content sharing eg. sharing on social media, trending topics etc) what is and isn’t a success. We can’t decide if Cate is interesting or not but we can … Continue reading Audience participation

In Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched, Mark Andrejevic notes several important characteristics of reality TV’s appeal to audiences, and, by extension, the important characteristics of a reality TV ‘star’ as Cate is trying to emulate. The two (three) focal points, as they pertain to Cate and our Project Brief 4, are as follows: 1: A unique character – Andrejevic argues that a character does not necessarily have to be ‘likeable’ to be likeable – a character who is seen to be particularly outspoken, entertaining, or smart may still become popular with a reality TV audience even if they … Continue reading Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched