ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the transformations to celebrity culture brought about by social media. Social media are understood as many-to-many communication platforms for easy uploading and sharing as well as direct, immediate and informal interaction in comments, and "likes". The chapter includes in the notion of "social media" blogs, sites like YouTube for uploading and sharing user-generated content as well as social network sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It conceptualizes celebrity as an organic and ever-changing performative practice rather than a set of intrinsic personal characteristics or external labels. This practice involves ongoing maintenance of a fan basis, performed intimacy, authenticity and access, and construction of a consumable persona. The chapter outlines how celebrity culture is characterized by continuous negotiation of the borderlines between private and public. It demonstrates the way in which celebrities themselves orchestrate their image and contribute to the development of their brand.
