Internet celebrity is broader and older than the contemporary influencer industry
Evidence
In the 2010s, dominant press coverage and conversations around internet celebrity have focused on just one particular type of celebrity: The Influencer. Influencers are the epitome of internet celebrities, given that they make a living from being celebrities native to and on the internet. Several news reports have been celebrating the success and promise of young Influencers, such as Australian Troye Sivan whose home videos on YouTube eventually grew into a singing contract with EMI Australia, an acting career in Hollywood, and being named by Time Magazine as one of the world’s 25 most influential teenagers of 2014. Still other reports focus on the shortcomings and scandals of the relatively new Influencer industry, such as when British YouTuber Zoe Sugg, who broke records for being the fastest selling debut novelist, shifting over 78,000 copies in a week in 2014, was exposed for having used a ghostwriter. But internet celebrity is a far broader concept with a much longer history than that of Influencers. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 61
Categorization
- DEFINE: Opens the chapter by defining Influencers as the narrow, contemporary subset of a wider internet celebrity phenomenon.
- XREF: connects to: Early Web 2.0 celebrity was built by leveraging blogs and lifestyle content — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 385; Internet celebrity spans diverse global forms beyond Western platforms — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 84; Internet celebrity includes non-human formats and spans fame or infamy — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 92 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Internet celebrity spans diverse global forms beyond Western platforms
#expands(0.82) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 84 - Internet celebrity includes non-human formats and spans fame or infamy
#expands(0.80) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 92