Celebrity, Inc.: the self as work in the era of presentational culture online

ABSTRACT

In 2010, P. David MIn 2010, P. David Marshall wrote one of the foundational texts of celebrity studies and online culture for the first issue of Celebrity Studies: ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media.’ Ten years later, performing internet celebrity has become a widely utilised resource in the production of not just the personal self but the professional brand in a precarious jobs economy. The article traces some of the developments in celebrity studies scholarship since Marshall’s influential article, highlighting the increasing importance of authenticity, intimacy, and access in maintaining relations with other users in a digitized attention economy. The monetization of microcelebrity practices draws attention to the hierarchy of status and fame that reinforces, rather than dismantles, systemic inequalities of gender, race and class. The article concludes that celebrity is not the only pedagogical influence teaching people how to engage with public life; ordinary people also deeply inform how celebrity operates as they participate in an everchanging digitised gig economy.

KEYWORDS:

• microcelebrity
• digital culture
• authenticity
• commodification
• performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica E. Johnston

Jessica E. Johnston earned her PhD in Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her dissertation examined the professionalisation of girlhood in celebrity and popular media cultures. She is a contributing author for Celebrity and Youth edited by Spring-Serenity Duvall, and her work has been published in the journals Celebrity Studies, Girlhood Studies, Television and New Media, and Transformative Works and Culture.