ARIN 3611 Social Media Cultural

Production

Week 9 Commodification

Developed by Dr Chunmeizi Su

University of Sydney

The commodified lives of influencers

This is a super trendy concept.

Luckily, I have found a Korean drama, which touched on all the subjects of today’s lecture.

You may have already watched this.

But probably, not from these angles.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Celebrity Ep1 – 05:00

Authenticity and realness

Authenticity and realness are at the heart of commodification.

These remain ‘central to constructions of the blogosphere and serve as a foil to mainstream fashion

culture’ (Duffy, 2017).

‘Such ideals sit uneasily with the self-branding activities that drive social media producers to market

themselves with intent’ (Duffy, 2017).

Economic and social capital

However, as influencers, our status sets us apart.

Your economic and social capital, or your class comes as a ‘position of relative privilege’.

Many influencers acknowledged their financial support from their families at the beginning of their

career.

Which is common for many influencers who come from rich families with a ‘rich profile’.

It’s one of the easiest ways to get attention, under the attention economy!

Celebrity Ep 3 37:28- 36:24

Economic hierarchy - It’s who you know

The overarching question in the influencer industry is:

How to get famous.

The answer, however, is sometimes quite simple,

By getting close to famous people, celebrities, or popular influencers.

But how do we get to them?

Via expensive events and conferences –

‘These forms of networking require sufficient reserve of time and money’ (Duffy, 2017), it’s a threshold

of access, i.e., social class.

Celebrity Ep 7 11:35 – 09:00

Cultivating the authentic persona

‘The best way to work on yourself is to consciously cultivate an authentic persona’, leveraging several

factors at play.

‘This legacy persists through content creator’s appeals to individualism, self-expression, and creative

voice’ (Duffy, 2017).

Express oneself authentically + manage digital image are part of ‘personal branding’ (Duffy, 2017).

Put yourself out there

To maintain visibility, a crucial step to be ‘seen’ and ‘established as a brand’, creators often find

themselves at a ‘always-on persona’.

This is where ‘visibility and intimate sharing get cast as conduits for post-feminist empowerment’, or

when it becomes ‘foundational elements of garnering an audience or landing a full-time gig’ (Duffy,

2017).

Personal life is part of the equation.

The binary

It is challenging to balance personal life with professional identity.

Sometimes, commodifying personal life can generate ‘a great deal of ambivalence’ (Duffy, 2017).

This is the case when personal life fits in with the self-brand image.

But there are cases when they don’t’ fit within one another.

The boundaries are dissolving, but the conundrum remains.

Compulsory visibility

As we mentioned in week 2, public visibility is ‘shaped by gendered expectations’, where women

influencers are under an imperative to put themselves out there.

This is why ‘some women conveyed apprehension about broadcasting themselves to anonymous

masses, others were more concerned about how those in their existing networks would react to their

digitally mediated self-expressions’ (Duffy, 2017).

As a result, ‘an individual’s failure to maintain a certain level of visibility is considered an impediment to

career success’ (Duffy, 2017).

Communicative intimacies

Putting yourselves out of them tends to enhance the “communicative intimacies” between influencers

and followers. It is privy to “what appears to be genuine, raw, and usually inaccessible aspects of

influencers’ personal lives”.

But we must carefully tow the line between visibility and vulnerability.

Social media creators are susceptible to online hate due to blurred boundaries between public/private

life.

Internal desire vs external demands = creativity (realness) vs constraint (pre-scripted self-brand image)

Dangers of mediated visibility

The trick is, you’re in front of the screen, your followers are not.

What can be done when you receive a mean comment, when it turned into hate speech, when you face

real dangers?

What makes you feel safe or not safe on social media?

Monetization strategies

In the case of Twitch, there are seven keyways to monetize content: subscribing, donating, and cheering,

advertising, sponsorships, competitions and targets, unpredictable rewards, and channel games

(Johnson & Woodcock, 2019).

For TikTok, there are traditional ways such as brand partnerships, virtual gifts,

donations, and traffic sharing. Or creative ways like e-commercialization (live shopping).

What are the differences of monetization strategies between these two platforms?

A lucrative career?

Despite these monetization strategies, if you think this is a lucrative career, you’re probably wrong.

Influencer industry is just like a pyramid, the top 1% makes all the money of the remaining 99%

combined.

It’s always the top ones who are making sustainable, real money.

Here is an example to evidence this claim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CnbEt-R81U

MCN and borderline practices

Because of this reality, many influencers, including their agencies, such as MCNs (Multi-channel

networks, agencies that represent influencers), have started to innovate, sometimes in a less glamorous

way.

When they engage in grey area activities, they are practicing what I call ‘borderline practices.

Borderline practices are ambiguous or infringing activities facilitated via algorithms and

practiced by corporations, platforms or users, that are both legally and ethically question-

able, having the potential of crossing visible and hidden boundaries (Su & Kaye, 2023).

Contract Performers

From the paper ‘Borderline Practices’, one interviewee mentioned that:

“Most influencers under MCN are contractors, not creators. MCNs normally hire editors,

directors, and actors to play their parts based on their own script, which is created based on their

analysis of the algorithms – what types of content draws attention, what kind of styles get

promoted easily. They identify trending videos, produce a different theme under the same framework,

and then hire people to replicate the video. We call this ‘fake accounts’, in that it is not original. This

behavior is market oriented, and user oriented, but not interest oriented. (Douyin Anonymous Creator B,

2021)”.

What is next?

After gaining the knowledge of commodified influencer industry. What is your suggestion?

What should have been done?

References:

DUFFY, B. E. (2017). Branding the Authentic Self: The Commercial Appeal of “Being Real.” In (Not) Getting

Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work (pp. 98–135). Yale University

Press.

Johnson, M. R., & Woodcock, J. (2019). “And Today’s Top Donator is”: How Live Streamers on Twitch.tv

Monetize and Gamify Their Broadcasts. Social Media + Society, 5(4).

Su, C., & Valdovinos Kaye, B. (2023). Borderline practices on Douyin/TikTok: Content transfer and

algorithmic manipulation. Media, Culture & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231168308.