Talk:Digital Media & Culture: Collaborative Essay Collection 2018/Determinism/In What Ways have Celebrity Influencers Contributed to Changes in Social Media Engagement?

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Hi there.

This is a very interesting essay question and I am very curious what your standpoint is on this topic. I personally think that celebrities have quite much influence over changes in social media engagement. To give an example of my own life: a couple of years ago many of my favourite musicians started using Instagram to share pictures. They would usually link to them on Twitter, but at some point it just got too complicated to follow up the links. So I decided to make an Instagram account to keep updated with their online presence. I created the account primarily for that. However, over time I started posting pictures too, as they would often like pictures from fans when they were tagged. Do you have similar experiences? If so did these inspire you to choose this essay question?

Additionally, when I was going through my notes I found some useful notes on Raymond Williams's book Television: technology and cultural form (1974). The source is quite dated and he is obviously talking about television at the time. However, he argues that broadcasting is a major social institution, which might be still relevant today. I was wondering, drawing on Williams's theory about broadcasting television, if social media, especially with the surge of usage and platforms in the recent years, can be viewed a social institution these days? Furthermore, if you agree with this, you could consider how celebrities might be understood as mediators.

Here is a full citation of the source: Williams, R. (1974) Television: Technology and cultural form. London: Fontana. (Hardcopies are available in the library)

My group and I would be delighted if you would visit and contribute to our discussion page too. Accessible at Always-on Culture: Research Question 2: Discussion.

MaryCastoridae56 (discuss • contribs) 10:17, 14 March 2018 (UTC)