Celebrification and viewer interaction in microcelebrities’ product promotion videos

Abstract

This study adopts virtual ethnography and discourse analysis to investigate celebrification in product promotion videos created by microcelebrities based in Taiwan. To explore the communicative functions of celebrification practices, in particular how product features motivate novel practices, this study focuses on three interrelated levels of analysis on videos and viewers’ comments collected from the microcelebrities’ YouTube channels. First, it examines how microcelebrities use multimodal resources to describe products and advertise them. It then analyses how microcelebrities present themselves via celebrification practices to project images suitable for product brands. It also examines viewers’ comments in response to microcelebrities’ self-presentation and celebrification strategies. It is argued that celebrification in product promotion videos constitutes a creative means of communication for microcelebrities to craft a self according to product features (Goffman, 1959). By highlighting salient aspects of their characters or personas, microcelebrities demonstrate their competence related to promoting products and social protocol.