Скачать или смотреть A Topography of Virtual Influencers | AoIR2021

By Rachel Berryman, Crystal Abidin, and Tama Leaver.
Presented at the 2021 Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference.

Abstract
Informed by my first six months of doctoral research, this paper offers a topography of virtual influencers that at once acknowledges their continuation of and breaking with the precedents of a lineage of “virtual beings” who have achieved celebrity status. Responding to the ahistoricism of much recent commentary, it draws on archival press and web research to situate virtual influencers at the intersection of technological advancements, discourses, and anxieties similarly characterising Hollywood’s “synthespians” at the turn of the twenty-first century; the legacy of “virtual idols” in East Asia (also known as“Vocaloids” in Japan); and the latter’s recent democratisation by a new generation of“vTubers” across video-sharing sites. Recognising this cross-medium migration of virtual celebrity—from anime, video games and blockbuster cinema to the participatory web—this paper adopts a platform-specific lens to highlight the affordances, cultures and vernaculars of specific social media as essential to virtual influencers’ aspiration to, and attainment and maintenance of, attention and fame.

Read the extended abstract here: https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/s...

Suggested Citation (APA):
Berryman, R., Abidin, C., & Leaver, T. (2021, October). A Topography of Virtual Influencers. Paper presented at AoIR 2021: The 22nd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. Virtual Event: AoIR. Retrieved from http://spir.aoir.org

More from the Authors
Rachel Berryman | https://rachelberryman.com
Associate Professor Crystal Abidin | https://wishcrys.com
Professor Tama Leaver | https://tamaleaver.net