Celebri-Tweets

Celebri-Tweets: A Textual Analysis of Filipino Celebrities' Tweets and Virtual Identity

ABSTRACT

The study examines the virtual identity of three Filipino celebrities by looking at the content they produced on Twitter and aligning the meaning of their messages to the concepts found in various readings about celebrity and stardom that articulate both the promise and difficulties of a celebrity status. These concepts are assumed to make up the celebrity's social identity. The analysis rests on the notion that the participants migrate their real-world self and social identities as celebrities to the online virtual blog environment and thereby cumulate in the formation of virtual identities. By doing so, the study explores the cultural and economic functions of their virtual identity, the salience of the public and private spheres in their messages,and the existence of a para-social interaction with their audience. In this sense, Twitter serves as a new virtual sphere that houses both their private ad public spheres and cultural and commercial functions in blurring boundaries.

Keywords : virtual identity, celebrity, cyberspace, Twitter

Gacusana, K. E. (2011). Celebri-tweets: A Textual Analysis of Filipino Celebrities’ Tweets and Virtual Identity, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

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