Twitter Kills The Publicity Star? How Social Media is influencing the business of Celebrity PR. (PDF)

Masterarbeit aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich Soziologie - Medien, Kunst, Musik, University of Westminster, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This dissertation is set out to explore the implications of Social Media - especially Twitter - on the field of celebrity PR. It attempts to shed light on the phenomenon of `tweeting` celebrities and whether this is seen as a threat to publicists or is actually being used for comprehensive impression management. A content analysis as well as semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires with celebrity PR practitioners have been carried out.
After a review of key literature, which indicates how closely the emergence of the celebrity system is tied to media developments, but also the rise of Hollywood publicists, the so-called `Fixers`, who would hold an enormous amount of control, it is examinded how this system is now challenged by social media. Celebrities claim how Twitter gives them the chance to bypass traditional media and to fight back against constant intrusion from the outside. Upon closer examination though, the content analysis suggests how Twitter is utilized for promotion, as well as deliberate self-disclosure in order to establish a closer relationship with fans. By all indications a celebrity`s Twitter profile is based on elaborate, sophisticated PR.
Interviewees supported this point of view, admitting that Twitter is ideally monitored by publicists because it provides a perfect opportunity for brand building and directly engaging fans in a dialogue. Publicists are willingly sacrificing some of their control in order to build an environment of credibility and authenticity for their clients on Twitter. Their role therefore becomes more consulting and is shifting more towards planning sophisticated and comprehensive impression management strategies than `just` being the middle man between celebrity and media.
However, this is still a very recent development and by far not all publicists have caught up on it. Thus this topic needs to be further investigated in the future.