Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-4-2020

Publication Title

Feminist Media Studies

Volume

20

Issue

8

Pages

1319-1323

Publisher Name

Taylor and Francis

Abstract

In this essay, we interrogate the boundary between the highly controlled Hollywood celebrity star system and the highly liberated social media influencer. By examining the case of Lil Miquela, a virtual social media influencer created through computer-generated imagery (CGI), we introduce the notion of a re-imagined virtual star system, which is defined by techno-human cultural intermediaries and the non-agentic persona as property. The virtual star system calls attention to contradictions between the real and the artifice and questions the significance of authenticity in both celebrity practice and the influencer industry.

Comments

Author Posting © Informa UK Limited., 2020. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Informa UK Limited. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Feminist Media Studies, Volume 20, Issue 8, October 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1830927

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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