Populist everyday politics in the (mediatized) age of social media: the case of Instagram celebrity advocacy

Kissas, Angelos (2022) Populist everyday politics in the (mediatized) age of social media: the case of Instagram celebrity advocacy. New Media & Society. ISSN 1461-4448

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Abstract

This article is interested in populism outside the master frame of institutional politics (populist parties/leaders), considering, instead, the populist potential of celebrities’ everyday politics on social media. To understand this potential, the article suggests, we need to understand how celebrities are compelled by today’s mediatized communicative ecosystem to perform themselves as ordinary advocates for people-victims. We need to examine how the performative logic that this ecosystem forces into platforms accommodates certain emotional claims to ordinariness and normative-moral claims to advocacy—who is (un)worthy of a place in the victimized people that celebrities should advocate for. The article does so by analyzing two paradigmatically different case studies: Lady Gaga’s legacy-status and Greta Thunberg’s influencer-style performances of celebrity advocacy on Instagram. The analytical discussion leads to contemplating the mediatized populist politics of everyday politics that both perform, despite their differences, and its ambivalent relationship with liberal democracy (centrist moderation and neoliberal consolidation).

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/nms
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Author
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JC Political theory
Date Deposited:	21 Mar 2022 15:36
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 20:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/114415

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