Follow me,I’m famous: travel bloggers’ self-mediated performances of everyday exoticism

Abstract

Celebrity has become common in many fields of endeavour and is increasingly manifested in the emerging form of self-mediated microcelebrity or social media Influencer. One regular tactic for both celebrity and microcelebrity is to use the media for a dual performance at once ordinary and extraordinary, linking the world of the exotic with that of the everyday. Turning the spotlight of (micro)celebrity studies on travel bloggers illuminates social norms and cultural values at the intersection of lifestyle and economics enabled by digital social media, and the role of self-mediation in their online success. This article analyses the About Me sections of 50 popular travel blogs to see how writers take control of their own media representations to combine the everyday with the exotic in such a way that appeals to readers and subsequently to commercial entities – commodifying themselves alongside their readers through media and on their own subjective terms.

Keywords

blogs celebrity Influencers microcelebrity performance self-commodification social media travel

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