Microcelebrity popularity is narrower but deeper than traditional fame

Evidence

Using camgirls as a vehicle for understanding this new form of celebrity, Senft argued that microcelebrities on the internet were unlike celebrities in the traditional entertainment industries on several counts29—where traditional celebrities practice a sense of separation and distance from their audiences, microcelebrities have their popularity premised on feelings of connection and interactive responsiveness with their audiences; where traditional celebrities may be known for their performance craft and skills, microcelebrities are expected to display themselves unedited as “real” people with “real” issues; and where traditional celebrities may have extensive fame among a large global audience, microcelebrities exercise a popularity that while narrower in breadth is far deeper. Further, microcelebrities hold a stronger obligation to their audiences than traditional celebrities, as the fame of the former is co-constructed through a community of interested viewers on the internet rather than by the mere mechanisms of the traditional entertainment industry. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 80

Categorization

• DEFINE: The systematic contrast between microcelebrity and traditional celebrity on distance, realness, breadth, and obligation.
• XREF: The co-construction of fame through community parallels the reader’s social-capital and reputation-systems readings (Milgrom, Coleman). — connects to: Micro-celebrity transforms personalities without offering the protective infrastructure of mainstream fame — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 408; Web fame cannot create traditional celebrity but produces a distinct micro-celebrity instead — Theresa M. Senft, Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in…, 194; Everyone can attain fame before a small networked audience rather than mass fame — Theresa M. Senft, Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in…, 195

Broader Connections

• Micro-celebrity transforms personalities without offering the protective infrastructure of mainstream fame #complicates (0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 408