Social media drives television producers to manufacture viral provocations

Evidence

The rise of social media, and the fear it has produced in television executives, means that shows like Celebrity Big Brother are saturated with anxiety — not only the anxiety of the housemates, who are often selected for their hair-trigger tempers or psychic weaknesses, but the anxiety of the producers, always looking for the next hashtag outrage, for provocations that will go viral. This anxiety, and the surrounding social situation that engenders it, takes us beyond the cool ambivalence of Warhol’s aesthetic. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 774

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ch27’s claim that celebrity culture shifted from awe at achievement to flattering self-mirroring — social media makes this self-mirroring the producers’ explicit goal. — connects to: Eyewitness viral stars are accidental celebrities manufactured by television news networks — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 150; Public social media conflicts are dramatized and consumed as entertainment — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 593

Broader Connections

• Eyewitness viral stars are accidental celebrities manufactured by television news networks #expands (0.85) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 150
• Public social media conflicts are dramatized and consumed as entertainment #complicates (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 593