Intermediated visibility: A case study of creators and MCNs in Singapore

Abstract

This paper situates itself in the intersection of Internet microcelebrities, visibility studies, and the intermediaries that are weaved into the process of visibility control. The highly regulated yet economically vulnerable media landscape in Singapore makes for a particularly interesting case study. Most of the data collection is from a local Multi-Channel Networks (MCN) that gathers aspiring creators in one of the country’s first-of-its-kind, industry-led training programmes, complemented by data from other local commercial MCNs and creators. The study makes use of qualitative interviews with creators and MCNs to gather empirical evidences on creators’ visibility imaginary as visible to ‘friends’ and visibility as metric numbers, in contrast to MCNs’ visibility understanding as visible to ‘fans’ and visibility as currency. Our study provides insights on the local contestations of the globally controlled visibility, proposing that visibility is ‘intermediated’ by not only platforms but also the state, MCNs, and creators in order to achieve ‘two-way visibility’. Our paper suggests small media markets that are dominated by global platforms to reconsider the platformization procedure.