The Celebrity Selfie

By: Amber Schiffner

“Celebrity selfies are – or, at least,
provide the illusion of being –
posed, produced and disseminated
by celebrities, who invite us into
their private lives. Whereas
celebrities seem to have lost
control in paparazzi photographs,
celebrity selfies suggest that they
reclaim control of how, when and
where they are depicted.”
An Overview:
Some of the things that we will be covering today are as follows:

The three ways we approach celebrity selfies:

The concept of ‘celebrification in order to set the cultural context for

celebrity selfies’

‘The phatic communicative function performed by celebrity selfie’ on

social network sites, which makes fans feel more engaged.

The effect the selfie has on the community of fans.

“Within a short time, selfies have turned into a favoured
mode for celebrities to express themselves and communicate
in an apparently direct and immediate fashion with fans and
followers on Instagram and other social network sites. They
belong to a larger, burgeoning tendency of ‘digital intimacy”
-(Thompson 2008 cited in Marwick and Boyd 2011b, p. 118)

Question: Do you agree with this quote? Why or why not?

The Selfie
★ Celebrity selfies are characterized by ‘authentic and commodified self’

★ Celebrity selfies can form of social bonding with fans

★ Celebrity selfies also can be used for advertising of a product or brand.

★ Celebrification - the continuous production and reproduction of celebrity

★ Celebrification plays a role in celebrity selfies because celebrities

reproduce as many selfies as they please
Celebrification
“Celebrification designates the particular media logic and cultural process through
which celebrity selves are constructed and communicated at any one time. Broadly
speaking, celebrification encompasses the mediated interplays and negotiations
between celebrities/ their management and various media platforms, media
institutions and fans/followers.”

“By producing and distributing selfies, celebrities not only erase the border-lines
between self and mediated self, self and branded self, and person and persona but
also between themselves and fans by publishing on social network sites and
showing scenes from the private sphere.”
Phatic Communication
★ Posting selfies on Instagram and other sites is a way of bonding with fans
for celebrities.

★ Celebrity selfies ‘document the day-to-day endeavours of celebrities:

sporting new outfits and gear, going to the gym, having dinner, shooting
videos, hanging out with friends, recording music, performing on stage,
travelling, or relaxing in their luxurious homes’

★ Celebrities establish presence and keep connected through the

successive documentation of their ‘extraordinary everyday’ lives in selfies.

Question: Do you feel as though selfies are a way of bonding with fans? Or do
you feel as if they’re expressing their fame through photographs?
Text vs. Photographs.
❖ Compared to text posts, photographs create more of a sense of being
present.

❖ “...the visual reproduction of the self in selfies stages a spectacular

‘extraordinary ordinariness” (Mortensen and Jerslev 2014)

❖ Compared to a simple Tweet or post, posting photographs allow fans to

actually feel present in a celebrity’s life.

❖ The selfies create a ‘connected presence’, by allowing fans to feel

connected and present in the celebrity’s life, which is easier to present
through photographs.
“By engaging in phatic communication, celebrity
selfies invite quick responses of awe and approval
from fans and followers. However, in comparison
with Twitter, selfies seem to call for more emotional
engagement on account of the visual reproduction of
the face, body and material world of the celebrity.
Phatic communication in a visual form creates a
heightened sense of presence and invites users to
confirm their co-presence by sharing, commenting
on, ‘liking’ the images, and imitating the celebrities
in their own selfies. They inscribe themselves into
the ongoing narrative produced by the successive
publication of celebrity selfies.”
One-Way Interaction
Celebrity selfies also offer a view of one- “Celebrities on Instagram tend to
way interaction with fans
While many fans like, comment, and
often times try to interact on
Celebrity Selfies, they often don’t
receive a response.
This is mostly seen on Twitter and
Instagram.
Question: Why do you think people try to
engage with celebrities knowing they
communicate one to many, and
invite fans to follow the
documentation of their lives, but
they rarely follow fans in return.
The proximity and presence of
fans seem mainly to be important
in their acknowledgement and
admiration of the celebrity
persona.”
‘The Performative Construction of the Self’
“By showing celebrities in the act of taking the image, selfies invariably
allude to their own production.”

“...self-representation as an intimate act and strategic management of the

self are fundamental to celebrity selfies. They show celebrities taking the
snapshot – looking into mirrors, making the smartphone visible or holding
the phone out at arm’s length. Disclosing their own act of creation,
celebrity selfies show celebrities at the time and place the photo is taken,
in the act of taking the photo. One cannot separate the image from the
act or the act from the image. One cannot separate celebrity-construction,
self-construction and the mirroring of self.” (Rascaroli 2009, p. 176)
The Selfie, A Photograph and an Act
Oxford Dictionary highlighted the word ‘selfie’ as not only a word, but an act.

“...selfies may still be characterised as performative – they are, so to speak, a way to do

things with images – because they are, at once, an act and the result of that act.”

“The selfie captures a posing body, lingering in a performative space and

time in between, taken by the camera and yet in the very process of being
taken, immobilised but not quite stilled, situated in a moment of presence
and yet also having been there at one and the same time.”

The act of taking a selfie freezes time, allowing the photographer to capture that image.
Freezing Time.
Through freezing time and taking a selfie, the
celebrity uses that to brand their image.

The image because a performative the moment

the celebrity posts the photograph on social
networks.

The act of taking the photograph and branding

their image, allowing the fans to communicate
with the celebrity.

Question: Do you believe celebrities do a good

job of positively branding their image through
Case Study: Danish
Pop-Star, Medina
Medina’s Social Media
Claims she runs her Instagram single
Instagram follower count: 340,901
handily
followers (taken from June 26,
“On a methodological note, Medina is 2015)
not of interest as a representative
Facebook: 500,000 (April, 2014)
of a particular Danish or
Scandinavian celebrity culture. Her Twitter: 111,000 (April, 2014)
deployment of Instagram, her
favoured channel for publishing Her instagram
selfies, very much adheres to the
same aesthetics, themes and forms
of communication as British and
Question: Do you believe Medina is
American celebrities active on this
social network”
really running her Instagram?
Social Media Use
Medina invites her fans into her life through tagging people in her posts.

With more female than male users on Instagram, as well as people under
the age of 35, it’s easy for celebrities, such as Medina to target their
audience: young females

Medina’s social media use can be divided into three categories.

1) ‘Private Photos’: selfies, photos of her life, etc.

2) ‘Official’ photos: on stage photos, photoshoots, etc.

3) Written statements: memes, inspirational quotes, etc.

“With regard to Medina’s selfies, they altogether put on display a celebrity
self fully in charge of her life. The artist is projecting the self of a successful
artist leading a full life –physically fit, wearing high-fashion clothes,
travelling, working out, engaging with an admiring crowd or doing photo
shoots, and owning two cute puppies. Neither photographs nor captions
confess to insecure or bad days. The individual selfies and the collection of
selfies on the profile appear to authenticate Medina as a celebrity self in
control: being herself, managing herself and branding herself at one and the
same time. This obvious commodification of herself in the selfies goes hand
in hand with the projection of intimacy and authenticity.”

Question: Why do you think this? Why are celebrities perceived to (typically)
always be super energetic and happy?
The Celebrity Advertisement
Distinguishing the three forms of photographs on Medina’s social media
proves a challenge.

Often times, ‘selfies’, turn into advertisements.

In a selfie, Medina pay be promoting a brand of clothes

These brands, typically, prove to be high end clothes.

Medina admits that she is aware she is advertising to a young audience,

who may be easy to target.

“I am a company promoting other companies”, she says.

Medina’s Captions - Phanatic Communication
Celebrity selfie captions offer a peek into their life.

They give a small glimpse, while maintaining distance.

In captions, you get a ‘good morning!’, but not much else

Causing you to feel connected, yet also disconnected at the same

time

This proves the distance between celebrity and fan.

Performing the Self, Being the Self
Many celebrity selfies show them currently in the act of doing something

Typically, Medina takes a selfie while heading to the gym or before a radio
appearance.

“This image literally captures Medina at the moment when her celebrity self
has come into being through make-up and she is about to perform in
front of the cameras.”

This shows that while normal people may selfie at this moment, a celebrity still shows
difference in the photograph.
Conclusion
Celebrity selfies create a false relationship with fans

Fans feel connected to the celebrity, while the distant with them is still present

Fans get a peek into celebrity life, however boundaries are still placed with
the small glimpse

Fans may feel connected seeing a fraction of life ‘behind the scenes’, yet are still kept at the
same distance.

Celebrities take selfies in the moment, while still maintaining their distinct
differences from everyday people.

It’s evident celebrities are different through the use of makeup and clothing.