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ABSTRACT
This essay considers how Influencers in Singapore were responding to COVID-19 on Instagram Stories. Specifically, this extract of the study focuses on six phenomena to have emerged including: Live chats and parasociality, communion and ‘collective effervescence’ (Durkheim 1912), branded content and topical coherence, persuasion and normalising practices, charity and the harnessing of a follow base, and infodemic and the amplification of causes. The paper then considers three major industry and systemic shifts in relation to the parasociality between Influencers and followers, the aesthetics of content from Influencers, and the accessibility of Influencers towards followers.
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Crystal Abidin
Crystal Abidin is a digital anthropologist and ethnographer of vernacular internet cultures; she researches internet celebrity, influencer cultures and social media pop cultures, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Crystal has published 5 books and over 60 articles and chapters on various aspects of internet cultures. She is Associate Professor of Internet Studies, Principal Research Fellow, and ARC DECRA Fellow at Curtin University, and the founder of the TikTok Cultures Research Network. For her public scholarship and continuous engagements with industry, Crystal was listed on ABC Top 5 Humanities Fellows, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, and Pacific Standard 30 Top Thinkers Under 30. Reach her at wishcrys.com