Digital tools let ordinary users produce celebrity by bypassing corporate gatekeepers

Evidence

In tandem with the increasing use of digital technology and social media platforms as sites for circulating personal content, users—whether celebrities, celebrity-wannabes, or audiences—were able to bypass typical corporate layers and structures previously pertinent to manufacturing fame and celebrity. The ability to produce and post “homemade content,” so to speak, and the likelihood of this content circulating widely on the internet, independent of the traditional media industries ushered in a new form of ordinary person celebrity that Turner20 calls the “DIY celebrity.” — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 76

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Turner’s ‘DIY celebrity’ — a core category for the typology.
• XREF: connects to: Early Twitter allowed ordinary users direct access to celebrities. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 410; Online fame bypassed gatekeepers without seizing cultural power over taste; The Internet lets individuals bypass gatekeepers and create personalized symbolic environments (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Online fame bypassed gatekeepers without seizing cultural power over taste #expands (0.85)
• The Internet lets individuals bypass gatekeepers and create personalized symbolic environments #expands (0.80)
• New distribution technologies let creators evade content norms authorities once enforced #corroborates (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 151