Snapshot
Cameo: Direct Monetization & Paid Puppeteering on Digital Platforms
My expertise on digital platforms, fandom, and celebrity was requested by Jenna Drenten, Chair of the Marketing Department at Loyola University Chicago, to help uncover Cameo’s place in the digital fan-scape. We conducted secondary research and original research, consisting of: textual and visual analysis of 765 Cameo videos and customer reviews, along with a macro analysis of the architecture of Cameo, through the lens of digital ventriloquism. We developed the concept “paid-puppeteering,” which refers to the strategic performance tactics of the talent, (i.e. service providers) on Cameo. This research is useful because:
- Paid-puppeteering offers a template for talent to maximize their brand and income on digital platforms like Cameo.
- The model of paid-puppeteering shows that Cameo will be successful in the long run because it puts the power in fan’s hands to connect with celebrities on their own terms via direct monetization.
- Direct monetization on digital platforms works when fans/users are offered a personalized experience, which Cameo does; findings as such can be used as a model for other apps employing subscription & direct-monetization.
Snapshot
Integrated Media Strategy of Bravo & the Real Housewives
The women of Real Housewives – and reality stars in general – are often denigrated. I wanted to show that we should respect this kind of talent because their media skills are unmatched – so much so – they can keep fans and followers in spite of bad press and even become President of the U.S. Employing various research methods (critical discourse & visual analysis of social media, frame analysis of each series, structured interviews with fans, and semi-structured interviews with the women of Real Housewives), I developed the concept emotional camping. It borrows from Arlie Hochschild and Susan Sontag’s work to explain the legitimate labor, (i.e. self-branding & identity work) reality stars do to keep their image and brand relevant in the attention economy. This work is useful because:
- I show how these women operate as “mini-brand extensions” of the Bravo lifestyle brand, which highlights Bravo’s branding strategy and audience cultivation methods.
- I show that these women are employed to act as “GIF and catchphrase machines,” producing sound bites on TV with the aim of making them a meme or GIF that can be shared across media channels. This performance foresight makes them experts at garnering continuous media attention, and the best advertisements for Bravo.
- Emotional camping requires the women to play highly emotional, reactive versions of themselves on public platforms, which I argue, affords them privacy in highly public careers; i.e., their loud public personas mask the more intimate goings-on in their lives.
- This concept is a template for understanding the identity work required of workers in order to succeed in the industry that employs them; i.e., Act like an extension of the company’s mission & ideology, and you’re golden.
Snapshot
Celebrities & Politics on Instagram
My University of Illinois at Chicago colleague, June Mia and I wanted to study celebrities from both sides of the aisle who were backing political candidates on Instagram during the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Combining social identity theory & performance theory, we conducted a textual discourse analysis of the posts and stories of 20 celebrity Republicans and 20 celebrity Democrats. Our work shows how celebrity Republicans and Democrats aligned their personal brands with the brand of their chosen political party. This work is useful because:
- Our findings show how certain celebrities use their platform effectively to advance social change; i.e. Selena Gomez turning her Instagram over to activists, scholars, and policy experts. This is useful for social media strategists looking to maximize their existing platforms and audiences for positive change.
- Analysis shows politicians benefit from celebrity’s endorsements and branding strategies, no matter the skill or effort, as long as the audience aligns with the politics of the celebrity. This is useful for political campaign managers looking to gain support for their candidate.
- Celebrity brands capitalize on the brand of the politician for their own gain by aligning their image strategically with certain social messages of the candidate. This is useful for media strategists looking to use celebrities effectively in brand campaigns.
Snapshot
Expressions of Femininity: Influencers from The Bachelorette
Brands are vehicles for marketing cultural expression (Holt & Cameron, 2010). As a sociologist and media scholar, I view reality TV and social media as mirrors of our cultural values. As a woman, and longtime Bachelor viewer, I wanted to examine cultural expressions of femininity put forth by The Bachelor franchise. Most academic research on the franchise focuses on TV content, so I wanted to move the needle forward by analyzing social content. Focusing my attention on the women of The Bachelorette, I conducted a critical visual & textual analysis of their Instagram to gage how they curated their brand to appeal to fans, the franchise, and other brands for sponsorships. This research is useful because:
- These women use postfeminist cultural codes to espouse ideas of beauty and empowerment, i.e. self-love, body positivity, and going make-up free help build their brand, maintain a following, and gain sponsorships. Posts that assert self-love, body positivity, and make up free days are edited and filtered.
- These expressions of femininity are being conflated with feminism, which is problematic. For instance, the women here embrace their “flaws” as an individual act of self-love, not as a collective rejection of patriarchal beauty standards.
- The expressions of femininity here are packaged online as feminist expression that is easy to perform, commodify, and brand. If brands want to help make feminist progress, they must actively innovate new expressions of femininity in their messaging. I suggest we start with casting more people of color and women of all shapes and sizes to take on these leading roles, and stop using so many different filters and beauty apps.
Snapshot
Housewives Fans: Affluencers Without Guilt
Academic research on media too often falls under “media effects” which unfairly assumes that people are passive and directly impacted by the things they consume, i.e. violent video games make people violent. I utilize a cultural approach to media, which adds important nuance to dismantle this type of thinking. Aiming to remove the “guilty” from guilty pleasure media, I wanted to understand the characteristics and motivations of Real Housewives fans, whom I know don’t throw wine in people’s faces just because they saw someone do it on the show. In two different studies, across time, via in-depth interviews and focus groups, I spoke with fans of these shows. This research is useful because:
- I reveal audience characteristics, i.e., Housewives fans are educated, stylish professionals motivated by aspirational branding, with a desire for status and living enjoyable lives.
- Fans are positioned by Bravo as culturally superior to the women on screen – which places an ironic distance between fans and the content they’re watching. This “makes it okay” to watch these shows guilt free. Such "in on the joke" tactics can be used in other ads & media messages to get people on board with products they might think are beneath them.
- Fans can spot who’s putting on a performance and also pinpoint the “emotional realism” (Ang, 1989) in a performance, (i.e., what’s real in these dramatic displays.) This is key to why we watch: to understand ourselves, make sense of situations, and relate on an emotional level with others struggling through the human experience. This also shows that performance and packaging matter for brands, but not more than drawing on real human experiences & connection.
Snapshot
Fan Power & Community: #BH90210Reunion on Instagram
Fans are everything. In celebrity studies, celebrities or brands are the result of a transaction between three things: (i) the face, (ii) the cultural intermediaries who curate that face, (iii) and fans. Take the fans out of this equation & you have nothing. Just look at #FreeBritney – fans really do make shit happen. My friends and I are die-hard Beverly Hills, 90210 fans and we wanted a reboot with the OGs. (The 2008 reboot doesn’t count. Ask any self-respecting fan). So, we sat down, wrote the reboot of our dreams, and created an Instagram (@90210Reunion) to share with fellow fans. Our work was well received and we even grew our following to 30K. Through an auto-ethnography of fan accounts on Instagram and interviews w/ other fan creators, I analyzed how this community worked to make the 2019 BH 90210 reunion happen. This research is useful because:
- It unravels the power dynamics between celebrities, fan account creators, and followers. IG in particular offers visual affordances and interactions between fans and celebrities that other online spaces don’t.
- Fans flexed their power in making the reboot happen, in spite of various hiccups along the way with the celebrities, writers, and networks involved. But the reboot they wanted made wasn’t in their control. In other words, fan power was exploited here for network and celebrity gain.
- Not all is lost however. Fans empower each other, unite in goals, and even cultivate their own influencer status based on their fandom.
- Networks and stars need to listen to what fans are fighting for – if they did here – the reboot would have been renewed! Fans simply know the history and direction of their media better than anyone in the celebrity transaction. They should be heard.
Snapshot
Media Framing of the Wealthy
Media framing leads us to make judgments and think in certain ways about issues, events, and concepts. I wanted to show that media framing of the rich plays into how people think about wealth & inequality. I conducted a rigorous frame analysis of the Real Housewives franchise to show how producers conveniently package the women of the series so we make class-based judgments about the rich in general. In addition to the extensive frame analysis of each series in the franchise, across time, I also interviewed former producers and editors of the series. Ultimately, the women are presented through five frames: Bling Frame, Hustler Frame, ‘Maybe we are white trash’ Frame, ‘You’re a Hypocrite’ Frame, and the Postfeminist Meta-Frame – which can overlap and appear simultaneously. In subsequent interviews with fans, they directly called up these media frames in their responses to questions about the rich and economic inequality – which means these media frames do play a role in how we think about bigger social issues. This research is useful because:
- I show how these five frames coalesce to produce characters who are well off, but unhappy, messy, ignorant or lacking self-awareness. The main message from the combination of these frames is that “rich people have problems too.”
- This message is more sinister than it appears at the surface because it works to reconcile the audience to the status quo. “Sure, these people are well off, but look how many problems they have!” So, we say, “I’m happy in my station.” Ultimately, these messages are designed to keep culture stagnant and perpetuate the existing social hierarchy.
- This is a useful starting point for creating innovative media depictions of the rich that can empower people to act/vote/enact change that will benefit us over the one percent.
Snapshot
Reality TV: A Political Tool of the Nation-State
I wanted to understand the globalization of pop culture products and transcend the typical discussions of “glocal-ization” and “cultural homogenization.” After conducting extensive secondary research on global cultural products, using qualitative textual analysis, I analyzed the content and formats of the most popular reality shows in the U.S. and China – distinct in terms of political order, rule of law, and cultural practices. I found that reality TV, while different in form and content, is used the same way in each country for similar reasons. This research matters because:
- Showing which reality TV formats resonate in each country & why is useful for brands, networks, and other expressions of pop culture attempting to employ a cultural strategy to globalize their brand.
- My cultural analysis uncovers reality TV’s political function by demonstrating that changes in format & content across locations are based on citizen’s anxieties. These shows then work to remedy those anxieties in accordance with the values and goals of the nation-state. This strategy can be employed by brands that have strayed from their ideology or by brands that need to inject a new ideology that works with the culture.