The rise of social video sharing internationally has enabled talented individuals to share user-generated video contents that attract audiences (viewers who engage in “views”) and followers (“subscribers” to the channel) and enable income generation as “influencers” (once a particular threshold of an audience population has been reached). Such individuals usually promote particular interests, whether these are commercial markets or political entities. The cultivating of a transnational image and the making of an international celebrity require some foundational approaches. From the collection of videos shared by a young American artist/illustrator and social influencer, this work abstracts insights about the strategies and tactics behind the making of transnational celebrity based on both empirics and abductive logic.
TopIntroduction
“Celebrity” and “fame” are considered concomitant phenomena, with fame defined as “public estimation, reputation, popular acclaim” and celebrity as being famous and “celebrated” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, as cited in Milner, 2010, p. 380). Celebrity has also been described as a personal brand or “person-brand” with symbolic capital and “accumulated prestige” (Aleti, Pallant, Tuan, & van Laer, 2019, p. 19). More precisely, person-brands are defined as a “persona, well-known or emerging, who are the subject of marketing, interpersonal, or inter-organizational communications” (Close, Moulard, & Monroe, 2010, p. 923, as cited in Aleti, Pallant, Tuan, & van Laer, 2019, p. 19).
The lauding of people is thought of as having existed from the beginning of human societies. Modern “celebrity culture” (practices and norms) emerged in the 20th century, with the rise of mass communications. This culture involves the identification of notable individuals who become well-known and are lauded broadly. This culture has evolved to the present, and new forms have emerged with the rise of social media. A new construct is the “transnational celebrity,” whose appeal crosses national boundaries and reaches beyond local conditions. Such celebrities have surpassed indigenous fame and found a wider often-global audience. Such celebrities are thought to have an outsized influence, voice, and agenda-setting ability, whether about values, style, and agendas, or target brand products and services. “Internet celebrities” are defined as those with “pronounced characters and charisma” who communicate broadly with “netizens” (Internet citizens) and influence people “in a specific domain or group” (Ku, Kao, & Qin, 2019, p. 274). More specifically, one research team has defined them in the following way:
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They draw support from Internet platforms to become famous.
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Each has a distinctive personality with features based on his/her physical appearance, expertise, such as creative writing, or knowledge in a particular area, such as fitness or beauty.
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They continuously and routinely create content online.
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They build a strong bonding with their fans and possess a strong interactive ability.
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They have a large number of fans and fans tagging.
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They exercise a high capacity of disseminating information and influencing people. (Ku, Kao, & Qin, 2019, p. 274)
These factors are relevant to this work. The research literature on celebrity describes some of the various dynamics that may contribute to the construct of celebrity and local (contextualized) appeal. Beyond the homegrown, what does it take to cultivate and maintain an international following in order to be a “transnational celebrity,” with a voice that reaches across national boundaries? What enables “escape velocity” to transcend subcultural celebrity (smaller audiences) in order to reach a much wider geographic and cross-population appeal? What are the roles of social media in enabling the construction of a transnational celebrity persona? How does this contemporary phenomenon of a “social media star” differ from a “media personality” of prior times? If mass audiences are rarer (with more niche-based audiences), how do consumer-fans differ from historical audiences, especially given the competitive “attention economy”?