Cultural distance between performer and audience generates exotic internet celebrity

Evidence

Internet celebrity that is “exotic” is perceived as distancing, far removed from one’s comfort zone, or so novel or foreign that it piques the interest of audiences who hold contrasting or different forms of “cultural capital.” Cultural capital refers to the embodied, objectified, or institutionalized assets that are accumulated through the cultivation of valued personal qualities, tasteful material objects, credentials, and qualifications. … Given that the forms of cultural capital that are preferred and privileged in society vary across cultures, exotic internet celebrity is thus a result of generative frictions between the celebrity and the viewer. This means that exotic internet celebrity arises whenever there is a gap in what is considered culturally normal or mainstream between the performer’s and the audience’s backgrounds and can occur within interand intracultural settings depending on the nuance of difference. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 109

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines exotic internet celebrity as audience-perceived distancing plus cultural capital gap, and links cultural capital to Bourdieu’s framework.
• XREF: Cultural capital as embodied/objectified/institutionalized assets is Bourdieu’s classic definition; the ‘generative frictions’ framing echoes Bourdieu’s field theory of taste. — connects to: Exotic internet celebrity arises from gaps in cultural capital between performer and audience. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 109; Ascribed micro-celebrity is granted through media attention and audience distance — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 276; Viewer identity combinations determine whether a performer seems exotic or mundane — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 111

Broader Connections

• Exotic internet celebrity arises from gaps in cultural capital between performer and audience. #expands (0.92) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 109
• Ascribed micro-celebrity is granted through media attention and audience distance #corroborates (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 276