Celebrity Personas on Twitter & Their Fan Base: A Case Study
Team Tweetwatchers
Ivory Assan
iassan3@gatech.edu
Colin Dublin
cdubb32390@gatech.edu
Myron Mckeller
mmckeller3@gatech.edu
LCC 3206 – Professor Bolter
December 10, 2011
Summary
The purpose of this project was to use case study examples to determine how
celebrities use Twitter to interact with their fans. In order to do this, we used specific
controversies that celebrities were involved in and tried to determine their general
interactive habits from this. When celebrities are involved in controversies, this is usually
when they are most visible to the public eye so it would make sense that this is when they
are the most involved with their fan base. However, after the case studies were
completed, we discovered that the celebrities that normally receive a lot of media
attention, tweet less and don’t interact directly with their fans on Twitter nearly as much
as the more low key celebrities do.
We concluded that this was due to mainly letting their real public relations teams
handle controversies and put spins on stories instead of letting the celebrities take control
and possibly mess up their image. In essence, more popular celebrities have more to lose
so they are less involved in direct fan interactions – especially during times of
controversy. The celebrities with less media attention tweeted significantly more and had
more direct conversations with fans on Twitter.
Introduction
Twitter, the world’s largest and fast growing micro-blogging and networking
website allows users to post “Tweets” containing 140 characters or less. Unlike other
social networking websites, Twitter, allows for celebrities to directly and or indirectly
interact with fans and supporters. However, this relationship, as with any, can be
multifaceted. In the case studies performed by looking at certain controversies, we see
that this interaction can be compromised. A study of this phenomenon between
controversial acts and fan support is conducted amongst multiple “types” of public
figures.
Celebrity in the broad sense refers to an individual whom has developed a “highprofile” and commands a significant amount of public attention and fascination. By this
standard, we must understand that this label can be attained through a number of actions,
reactions and through various industries. For this reasoning to complete an accurate
analysis of this delicate relationship between celebrity and fan, it is imperative that
celebrities from a diverse subset of industries be observed, analyzed and interpreted. By
using a number of popular culture sites and magazines the celebrities of choice are
readily accessible and available for analysis.
Page | 1 Reality TV stars, politicians, athletes, musicians and even artists all belong to the
population of celebrities and have the opportunity to communicate with their supporters,
fans, and critics. Twitter allows this interaction to occur instantaneously and directly. A
study of this interaction will show how, why and when celebrities use this tool as a
channel of communication to fans especially during times of controversy. Naturally,
during times of controversy, the relationship between idol and admirer, or supporter and
celebrity is tested thus causing outcry, usually originating within the fan base with
opinions of the situation.
Description
Celebrities for this study include Kim Kardashian, Chad Ochocinco, MittRomney,
Wale, and Lady Gaga, respectively. These individuals cover a wide demographic of
supporters meaning that they have a diverse Twitter audience, which was the basis for
their selection. Each of these individuals has a current relevance as it relates to public
opinion and in this sense they are each relevant to today’s popular culture. More
importantly each possess a recent (2 years ago or less) controversy that we followed via
multiple Twitter analysis software clients.
The phenomena of fan and celebrity interaction was studied on a per-case basis in
which a specific time interval surrounding a notable public controversy was observed and
the subsequent tweets, retweets, “at-replies”, and tweet content was collected, interpreted
and analyzed. Based on this data conclusions are drawn to effectively determine how the
celebrity-fan relationship is tested during adversity and how celebrity response or lack
thereof assists in the restoration of this relationship.
To fully analyze the celebrity interaction, a number of sites and articles were used
to observe the Twitter activity, and to maintain consistency amongst cases. Among these
external references, a site called TweetPsych was used to analyze the celebrities’
respective Twitter personality, which basically is a dissection of the user’s tendencies
based on the content of his or tweets compared to the average Twitter user; he average
Twitter user’s data is collected using an algorithm specific to TweetPsych. In addition,
TweetEffect was used to find the number of gained and lost followers, as it relates to
specific tweets on a per tweet basis. So effectively for each individual tweet within a
given time frame we are able to see how the public support increased or decreased given
the nature and time of the tweet. Similarly TweetStats was used to obtained a thorough
bar graph of Twitter usage which is then correlated with the time of controversy to
observe any meaningful correlations.
Method
In order to collect data on our case studies, we used several websites to collect
information from the Twitter archives. We read articles that talked about celebrities and
personas and how they tend to relate. For collection of raw data, we used the website
TweetStats, which allowed us to see graphs and charts of any celebrity’s Twitter usage
Page | 2 over the past year. Another thing afforded to us with this website is the ability to see the
tweets with hash tags that each celebrity tweeted. Another website we used was
TweetPsych. TweetPsych allowed us to analyze a Twitter account based on categories
such as Self-Reference, Media, and Sex. It takes percentages of how often each category
is tweeted about and displays it on a graph. Topsy is another site we used, which allowed
for direct access to the Twitter archives for a given follower. We could focus on
keywords with this website. TweetEffect allowed us to analyze a user’s follower gain and
loss over a given period of time. We could get a feel for how often a celebrity gained or
lost followers. Twitalyzer allowed us to see the effectiveness of the tweets of each
celebrity. The website ranks each user based on ratings like average tweets per day and
followers gained per day. WhoFollowsWho is another site we used to see if any of the
celebrities shared similar followers. The site listed the common followers of two
accounts. We collected the data and used it to track the tweets, changes, and backlash via
Twitter for each account. Overall, all of the Twitter statistic websites used allowed us to
analyze something specific to a person’s Twitter account. This collected data was then
compiled so that it could analyzed and applied to each celebrities individual case study.
Case Study #1: Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian is the daughter of O.J. Simpson’s famous defense attorney,
Robert Kardashian. Her claim to fame occurred in 2007 when a sex tape of her and her
then boyfriend Ray J was leaked on the Internet. That same year, her family garnered a
reality TV show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which is currently in its 6th season
and has garnered 3 spin-off reality TV shows.
The controversy looked at for Kim Kardashian involves her husband Kris
Humphries. The two began dating in October 2010, became engaged in May 2011, and
married on August 20, 2011. Their wedding was even featured on a two-part E! television
special in October 2011. After spending approximately $18 million dollars on the
wedding and only being married for 72 days, Kardashian filed for divorce on October 31,
2011 – citing irreconcilable differences. Instead, Humphries requested an annulment on
December 1, 2011.
The Kardashian name is currently associated with four reality television shows;
Keeping Up With the Kardashians is the main show with Kourtney and Khloe Take
Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, and Khloe & Lamar being spin-offs.
Currently, Keeping Up With the Kardashians is watched by as many as 4.1 million
viewers and when it premiered, it was the highest rated Sunday night series by men and
women ages 18-34. On November 1, 2011, Kim posted a “message to her fans” on her
personal website addressing the rumors that her marriage was a scandal and just for show
in the first place. She seemed very sincere in it. Being that she was personally addressing
this on her website through a letter and not through press and media reports, I believe that
she will personally address this issue on Twitter with her fans. She is a celebrity known
for publically replying to fans and since national trending topics recently have been
“ThingsLongerThanKimsWedding” (Things Longer Than Kim’s Wedding), it makes
sense that she will publically acknowledge the backlash she is receiving.
Page | 3 After doing research, the following things were found and concluded. In her last
200 updates, Kardashian lost 68 followers and gained 73 followers via Tweeteffect. Her
monthly tweets have been in the general range of 300 tweets. She doesn’t show a pattern
of tweeting more at momentous moments in her relationship. This is a sign that she
doesn’t see the need to specifically respond to rumors, etc. more than the usual. The only
time Kardashian said anything about her crumbling relationship with Humphries is when
she tweeted the link to the message she wrote her fans. Even then, the tweet was very
simple and vague. According to Tweetpsych, Kardashian talks about “negative” things
35% less than the average person and talks about “positive” things 92% more than the
average person. This directly correlates with how she handles media attention. She
doesn’t like to portray herself as constantly being involved in drama and media attention
even though she is. She always tweets more positive things that deal with her family and
successes. Kardashian tweets “self-references” 159% more than the average person.
Majority of her tweets are about her show and stores – mainly Kardashian professional
business. She is also very affectionate towards close family members and friends on
Twitter. She often tweets her sisters “I love you” or posts pictures of them doing silly
things. Whenever she does respond to fans, she only responds to positive things that they
say. She never addresses controversial issues or controversial things that her fans may
say.
Case Study #2: Wale
Wale is a hip-hop recording artist that burst onto the scene in 2008-2009. After
signing a record deal with Interscope Records, he released his debut CD Attention
Deficit. Wale’s fan base originates out of the Maryland/DC area where he is from. Wale’s
music can be described as appealing mainly to women. He tells stories of love and
relationships, some of which are personal, that move his listeners and leave lasting
impressions on his female fans.
In February of 2010, Wale released a video for a song that was slated to be a
single for his upcoming debut album. The song, entitled “Pretty Girls”, was an ode to all
of the beautiful women of the world. The song made no remarks about women other than
appearance, but the video, however, consisted mainly of fair-skinned African American,
Latina, and Caucasian women. The assumption was that there were no dark-skinned
women in the video. Because Wale’s persona appeals mainly to African American
women, there should be major backlash from this incident. According to his Tweetpsych
profile, Wale tweets about sex-related topics 866% more than the average Twitter user.
Twitter users made their opinions known to Wale, but he insisted that he had no control
over the selection of women for the video at the model call. Upon viewing some of his
tweets from February of 2010 using Topsy, a Twitter archive search engine, I discovered
that Wale responded to fans by stating that he had no control over the models chosen.
The resulting actions that followed were somewhat typical, but surprisingly fans
lashed out at Wale, who is Nigerian, for failing to include dark-skinned women in the
video. They felt that he was stereotyping typical African American women as not pretty.
Page | 4 Wale responded mostly through retweets of other fans. Anything he said originally either
dealt with the controversy in general or the continued promotion of the video. Some fans
even corroborated Wale’s story by saying that no dark-skinned women showed up for the
model call. Wale made his followers well aware of the fact that he knew about all the
flack he was receiving for his video. Fans, particularly his female fans, were taken aback
by his strong opinion. According to the information gathered, it is safe to say that Wale
lost followers during this time frame from February 2010 to April 2010. It also didn’t
help that the song “Pretty Girls” was on his album, which contained another song dealing
with curbing debate between African American skin tones called “Shades.” Fans made
this fact known, which further confused them as to why he would exclude dark-skinned
African American women from his video.
Searching the Twitter archives using Topsy allowed me to see Wale’s direct
responses to the controversy. I uncovered that his stance on the issue caused him to tweet
more about being an artist as opposed to model selection. Tweetpsych suggested that,
after Sex and Media, Self Reference is his third most tweeted topic. Self-Reference,
according to Tweetpsych, is anything that refers to one’s activities or personal actions.
When he wasn’t promoting a video or openly appealing to women with clever quotes and
statements, he passively referred to the controversy during the months of March and
April of 2010. Most of the controversy was subdued by the release of several other videos
in which Wale featured more dark-skinned women. Tweetstats allowed me to view the
tweets that contained the words “pretty girls” which uncovered that Wale felt the variety
of women shown in the video was appropriate. He also pointed out that the “Pretty Girls”
video wasn’t the only video released that day, but people only felt strongly for that video
and not the other. In conclusion, the controversy, like anything charged that Wale tweets;
caused him to lose followers, particularly female followers, but he eventually gained
those back through diligence.
To summarize this particular controversy, Wale’s fan base generally continued to
support him. Since he’s an up and coming artist, the gain and loss of fans can change
with the wind. Wale continued to stay connected with his fans, continued to say whatever
he pleased, and continued to handle his own public relations.
Case Study #3: Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney, is a prominent politician who served as the governor of
Massachusetts from 2003-2007 and subsequently was a Republican presidential nominee
in 2008. Romney however lost this bid to John McCain and reentered this race recently
for the 2012 presidential race. Romney, as many politician and similar public figures, has
an active Twitter account through which he uses to advocate for his campaign, announce
appearances, and informs the public of his numerous platforms and updates. Currently
Romney has 183,140 followers and 235 friends to which he has devoted just 691 tweets.
Romney joined Twitter on June 23rd, 2009 which is roughly a stint of two and a half years
on the social media website.
Page | 5 Effectively, Romney has not tweeted much over the course of his candidacy nor
during the recent controversy, which he was involved. On June 2nd, 2011 Romney
decided to announce publicly that he was a practicing member of the Mormon religion.
The announcement was made via teleconference at the official beginning of the
campaign. Naturally with an announcement of this nature, there is a wide variety of
opinions that result from the controversy. In a race for presidency it is imperative to
establish and maintain the support of as many Americans as possible. However this
responsibility is harder to maintain and becomes questionable when religious belief is not
in correlation with the “general public”. The public eye can easily be influenced by the
actions of Romney making this announcement at the beginning of his bid for candidacy.
We hypothesize that this decision proves to be more detrimental than beneficial in the
long run and the corresponding Twitter followers and popular support will significantly
decrease.
In beginning this study, the first step is to look at the nature and content of
Romney’s tweets to establish a cyber-identity to associate with this “celebrity”. Using
TweetPsych, data it can easily be seen that Romney, according to indicative keys words
and phrases, tweets about leisure, money and work 241%, 173%, and 99% respectively
(when compared to the average Twitter user). Following these observations with a closer
look at Romney’s tweets it can be seen that Romney’s account essentially is devoted to
the obstruction of the Obama campaign and the leisurely activities that are associated
with a campaign that help to justify the TweetPsych data. Similarly looking at TweetStat
trends, Romney’s tweet volume has been very consistent over time, and only averaging
2.1 tweets per day and 58-64 tweets a month which indicates that Romney is a sparse
user at best. Even in the days surrounding the announcement Romney continued this
average of 2.1 tweets per day and none referenced the announcement that occurred within
the week.
Concluding this study it was determined that for campaigning purposes, security,
and time constraints, Romney has a designated public relations team that is responsible
for the Twitter updates and subsequent public communication. Thus the study is
inconclusive of how Romney utilizes his celebrity status to interact with supporters
through direct or indirect means. Similarly Romney lost a negligible number of followers
during this time period, which can most directly be attributed to the fact that supporters
understand that Romney is not producing his own tweets and the accounts is more so an
avenue through which campaign updates are given.
Case Study #4: Chad Ochocinco
Chad Ochocinco is a popular NFL football player. He used to play for the
Cincinnati Bengals, but currently plays for the New England Patriots. His controversy
involves his relationship with Evelyn Lozada. Evelyn Lozada’s claim to fame is being the
star of a VH1 reality television show named Basketball Wives. The show featured current
and ex girlfriends and wives of NBA players; it has been on the air from April 10, 2010present and Lozada is a main cast member. VH1 also offered Ochocinco a reality dating
show that aired from July 11 – September 5, 2010. Even though Ochocinco briefly dated
Page | 6 the show’s winner, him and Lozada went public with their relationship before
Ochocinco’s show even had a finale; their relationship became public in August 2010. On
November 16, 2010, the couple got engaged. Needless to say, VH1 produces weren’t
happy about how the couple handled their relationship seeing as how they are both
starring in shows about finding love and dealing with relationships as celebrities. As of
late November 2011, the couple has accepted a proposed idea for another VH1 reality
show about their relationship.
The couple has a very public relationship. The media often spots them out and
about and they even publically address one another on Twitter. Lozada has even admitted
that Twitter is where their relationship started. Due to this, we would assume that they
have no problem with discussing their relationship on Twitter. Also, seeing as how they
are in the process of getting their own show, we would assume that their fans will be very
supportive of their relationship on Twitter and view it in a positive light as long as the
relationship stays positive. However, if drama arises in the relationship, fans will most
likely begin to take sides for whomever they feel is right in the disagreement.
In Ochocinco’s past 189 updates, he has lost 70 followers and gained 60
followers. (tweeteffect.com) Common things Ochocinco tweets about as related to
relationships are sex, emotions, and thinking. According to tweetpsych.com, Ochocinco
tweets 133% more than the average user; he tweets about emotions 58% more than the
average user; and thinking 49% than the average user. It is also important to note that
Ochocinco is considered the 94th most popular Twitter user – out of 1000 popular
celebrity tweeters from different fields – according to twitaholic.com.
Currently Ochocinco has 578 friends – people he is following on Twitter. Before
he started dating Lozada, he had approximately 1500 friends. Lozada admits to having a
conversation with Ochocinco after they started dating with who he was following on
Twitter. Majority of these friends were females and Ochocinco deleted over 900 of these
friends to ease Lozada’s mind about whom he was interacting with on Twitter. The two
monitor each other’s accounts quite frequently and make comments on conversations that
aren’t even directed towards one another. This seems to actually engage their fans. Fan
seems to enjoy the fact that they have first hand access to conversations between the
couple in real time. One example of when play jealousy occurred openly on Twitter and
garnered attention happened recently on November 5, 2011 when Lozada began talking
to a friend, Jessenia Vice, about vacation plans. Vice is a video girl and model. In the
middle of their conversation, Ochocinco interrupted them with jealous comments about
the two visiting one another. Lozada and Vice tried to handle the situation in a very light
hearted manner by making jokes, so this gave the impression that the situation wasn’t
very serious. Later, one fan responded to Lozada’s playful banter with Ochocinco and
Vice and received a response.
Hey_Steph Stephanie Henderson I love seeing @ochocinco ‘s lady @EvelynLozada give him the business on Twitter. If you can’t fun with each other, you can’t have much. EvelynLozada Evelyn Lozada Page | 7 @Hey_Steph It’s all in love! We don’t take ourselves too seriously! We live to have fun and joke around. In conclusion, the two like the feedback they get from their fans and actually take
the time to go through and read what they say to them. Ochocinco doesn’t respond to fans
nearly as much as Lozada does, but he still does respond to them. He actively engages his
fan base and has no problem letting them into his personal life when it comes to
relationships and his career.
Case Study #5: Lady Gaga
On May 5, 2011, Lady Gaga released the video for her second single off her
sophomore album. The song is entitled “Judas” and both the lyrics and the video that
premiered on American Idol that day were both biblically themed. The video depicts a
biker gang reminiscent of the popular television show “Sons of Anarchy.” The members
of the biker gang represent members of the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus the
bible. Lady Gaga sings about not being able to love [Jesus] because she is still in love
with Judas. The choreography and outfits seen in the video are a stark contrast to the
biblical theme. Chains with several crosses and people with Some Christian organizations
were overtly upset because they felt Lady Gaga mocked God by turning the story of
Judas into a story about a risqué biker gang.
With this new controversy, Lady Gaga penetrated deeper into a community that
has mixed feelings about her musical creativity. One side of the debate sees this as
nothing more than a product of the times. Lady Gaga took something from the past and
gave it relevance by adding a theme from a current popular culture. The other side sees
this as yet another attempt to mock something as sensitive as Christian Religion. In the
Bible, the character Gaga portrays Lady Gaga continues to assert to this day that the song
Judas is not meant to be an attack on religion. Creative Director Laurieann Gibson also
supported the video. Her input was that the video itself went through several changes
before the final cut was made. Gibson felt that there was one point during production
where two different views were present. When asked if she would leave the set if the
final cut of the video was too offensive for her liking, Gibson agreed, saying,
“Absolutely. I do believe God inspired and worked on everyone's heart, but yes. I would
have been like, “Good bye, I ain't doing it. No way.”
The other side of this controversy sees this song and accompanying video as an
anti-religious protest. The story of Judas has a villainous theme, and by Lady Gaga
saying that she couldn’t love anyone else because she’s still in love with Judas alludes to
the fact she may be still caught up in an unholy lifestyle. According to Tweetstats, Lady
Gaga has never tweeted negatively about her song, nor has she replied with contempt to
those who have tweeted negatively about her. She tweeted to promote her video and the
single abundantly. Using the TweetCloud extension I discovered that most of all the
tweets pertaining to “Judas” were for promotion or the production of the video.
According to Tweetpsych, Media is her second-most tweeted category, so it is likely that
the main purpose of her Twitter account is to promote her songs and albums.
Page | 8 In the end, we discovered that Lady Gaga doesn’t directly respond to
controversies via twitter. Her Twitter persona only reflects the positive aspects of her life:
her music, her videos, and her tour shows. She only retweets positive messages from her
followers. We came to the consensus that celebrities like her who’s constantly in the
media for different controversies don’t need to defend themselves via Twitter. Twitter,
for Lady Gaga, is primarily a promotional tool. She uses it strategically to release songs,
videos, and concert dates to her fans.
Results
Our research lead us to the conclusion that in today’s society, Twitter is a tool for
celebrities that can be used to connect to fans in a way they have never before. Our case
studies gave us some insight on the correlation between controversies and perceived
popularity. People like Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, and Mitt Romney don’t need to
assert themselves via Twitter. The sheer popularity they have seems to generate their
individual fan bases. Lady Gaga has 14 million followers on Twitter, yet she has only
tweeted a little over 1000 times. This would be fine if she had only recently made a
Twitter, but she’s had an account for the past three years. She may not tweet much, but
because of her popularity, her tweets are made more effective thanks to her followers.
Gaga’s fans downplayed the particular controversy we covered. She has fans actively that
support her. Kim Kardashian has a similar Twitter persona. Despite the controversies and
defamations of character she faces on virtually a daily basis, Kardashian mainly uses
Twitter to encourage her family and her businesses. The only time she speaks directly to
fans is through her personal website. Mitt Romney has a significantly smaller population
and only around 100,000 followers. He has amassed only about 700 tweets, but his tweets
generally deal with campaign events. He posts occasionally to thank followers for
supporting his campaign, but other than that, his Twitter persona is focused solely on
painting him in a negative light. Conversely, people like Wale and Chad Ochocinco have
more personal Twitter accounts. They tweet openly about current events, respond to fans,
and are actively enhancing their Twitter personas. We’ve come to the conclusion that,
unlike our other case studies, these two are generally lesser known, so their Twitter
accounts are an extension of themselves. It allows fans to connect to them in an effort to
increase popularity. Wale has tweeted approximately 26,000 times, and Chad Ochocinco
has tweeted around 31,000 times.
Future Work
The correlation between fan and star, as mentioned, is a very delicate relationship
and this study only proved to be a miniscule insight into this multifaceted bond. Viewing
multiple industries allowed for a more broad sense of how this relationship works in a
cross cultural sense and how different types of supporters display different levels of
concern or denouncement towards a given controversy as it relates to the individual they
support. However even in covering 5 different celebrities in 5 different avenues of
entertainment with fan bases of negligible overlap shows that there is much more that can
Page | 9 be done to fully understand the nature of fan-celebrity interaction in times of controversy
or even praise.
In order to carry out future studies, one might consider conduction of studies on a
tiered basis in which the very concept of a celebrity is redefined. In this sense one could
observe many rising or declining stars, especially those in reality TV, professional sports,
or local politicians. Similarly, the fan communication can be observed as the said artist or
entertainer becomes more famous, or conversely loses adoration in the public eye.
Performing this study would allow for a better understating of how and when the fancelebrity interaction changes from direct to indirect, public to private, or none at all and
vice versa. We also suggest that multiple celebrities from a specific industry be analyzed
to see if the general consensus from our case studies was an anomaly or a common
pattern. For example, do a case study observing only reality TV stars, another case
studying observing only NBA players, etc.
Amongst the different forms of entertainment Twitter can be used as a venue of
self-promotion and fan appreciation; thus assisting in the rise to celebrity status. This
phenomenon is more and more recurrent especially as it relates to “YouTube celebrities”
who commonly ask for viewers to follow their Twitter account. In this aspect the
celebrity is on a rise to stardom, and through direct communication the user aims to
garnish a fan base and gain momentum. Cases studies of this nature can help to further
define key aspects and milestones in the celebrity-fan relationship especially the
establishment and termination of direct communication.
Page | 10 Bibliography
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This articled describes the controversy that Wale received after his “Pretty
Page | 11 Girls” video premiered. The writer of the article expresses the same angry
sentiments at Wale that caused him to get in trouble in the first place. He agrees
with the fact that it is not okay that there are no dark-skinned women portrayed in
the video.
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9. Dhar Mesh. HubSpot, Inc. 23 Feb. 2010. 17 Oct. 2011<http://tweet.grader.com/>
Once you type in a Twitter account name, you are able to see how
influential you are on twitter. A complex algorithm is used to rank you within
10+million Twitter users and based on this algorithm; you are also given a grade
out of 100 on your Twitter reputation and account.
10. E! Entertainment Television, LLC & NBCUniversal. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011
<http://www.eonline.com/>
Scattered throughout the website is celebrity news, photos, and updates. It
doesn’t focus on music, but instead of the daily activities and major events of
celebrities in general.
11. "Evelyn Lozada Admits She Met Chad Ochocinco On Twitter Via Direct Message,
Then Asked That He Unfollow A Thousand Female Followers | Bossip." Bossip |
Gossip for the Hardcore | Black Celebrity & Entertainment News. 7 Nov. 2011.
Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://bossip.com/493719/true-or-false-did-evelyn-makechad-stop-following-hundreds-of-women-on-twitter30346/>.
This article describes the first time Ochocinco and Lozada met.
Apparently, Lozada talked to Ochocinco on Twitter before they began trying to
pursue any type of romantic relationship. Ochocinco had made a rude comment
about the cast members of Lozada’s show and she retaliated by addressing him on
Twitter.
12. Ferris, Kerry O. "Through a Glass, Darkly: The Dynamics of Fan-Celebrity
Encounters." JSTOR. JSTOR, 2001. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1525/si.2001.24.1.25>.
The way celebrities interact with their fans is truly a dynamic relationship.
Every celebrity takes their importance to their fan base differently and therefore
Page | 12 responds to them differently. Some fans follow their chosen celebrities more
intently than others and this can lead to a very tumultuous relationship when
controversies, etc. occur because fans may take things too personally or seriously.
13. Forbes.com LLC. 2011. 17 Oct.
2011<http://www.forbes.com/wealth/celebrities/list>
Forbes has compiled a list of the top 100 most powerful celebrities in the
world using a specific methodology. Some of these celebrities on the list are
musicians.
14. Groening, Chad. "Should Mormonism Be a Factor in Presidential Race?
(OneNewsNow.com)." OneNewsNow.com - Your News Right Now. 9 Dec. 2010.
Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1492992>.
This article describes the effect that religion may have on a presidential
campaign. More importantly it describes how people are reacting negatively to
Mitt Romney being a Mormon.
15. Honey, C., and S. C. Herring. "Beyond Microblogging: Conversation and
Collaboration via Twitter." System Sciences (2009): 1-10. 8 Jan. 2009. Web. 15
Oct. 2011.
This article analyzes how twitter conversations flow naturally. Once
again, this will be good to compare if celebrities actually do this.
16. “Hot 100.” Rovi Corporation. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011<
http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/charts/hot-100>
This serves as the most trusted music chart source for the United States.
Every week, they post the top 100 songs and how they have moved up ad down
the charts, how many weeks a song has been on the charts, and the biggest song
jumps and falls of the week.
17. Jenkins, Henry. “The Message of Twitter: ‘Here It Is’ and ‘Here I Am.’” Confessions
of an Aca-Fan. 23 Aug. 2009. 15 Sep. 2009.
<http://henryjenkins.org/2009/08/the_message_of_twitter.html>.
“If McCluhan is right and the medium is the message, what is the
message of Twitter?” Jenkins was once asked this question and through this
post, goes on a mission to answer this question. He explores how the
importance may be deeper than the actual users’ tweets and how the
medium in itself opens up a new way to communication and affects our
culture.
18. Jocelyn Vena. "Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Co-Director Explains Video's Religious
Imagery - Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV." New Music Videos, Reality TV
Shows, Celebrity News, Top Stories | MTV. 9 May 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663450/lady-gaga-judas.jhtml>.
Page | 13 This article describes the religious imagery that can be found in
‘Judas’. It also explains that the theme and inspiration for the video came from
the popular FX network television show ‘Sons of Anarchy’.
19. Kim Kardashian Videos, Photos and Blog: Official Website. Kim Kardashian. Web.
09 Dec. 2011. <http://kimkardashian.celebuzz.com/>.
This is the official website of Kim Kardashian. It allowed us to browse
what type of content she actually puts out to her fans and it is where we found the
letter that she wrote to her fans following the announcement of her divorce.
20. Kjus, Yngvar. "Idolizing and Monetizing the Public: The Production of Celebrities
and Fans, Representatives and Reality TV." International Journal of
Communication (2009): 277-300. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://irtvu.com/files/Article/reality%20TV.pdf>.
This article analyzes the phenomenon of reality TV stars and how the
public perceives them, embraces them, or outcasts them. This article brought
a lot of insight due to the fact that we live in an age where people like Kim
Kardashian seem to be famous for being famous. It doesn’t quite make sense
to anyone, but somehow reality TV stars are leaving behind a legacy simply
by living their lives in front of cameras.
21. Kwak, Haewoon, Changhyun Lee, Hosung Park, and Sue Moon. "What Is Twitter,
A Social Network or a New Media?" WWW '10 4.12 (2010). ACM Digital
Library. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1772751>.
41.7 Twitter user profiles were obtained and analyzed. The analysis
was to look at people’s influence on Twitter and how this social media site
differs from others. It was found that any retweet could reach as many as 1,000
users on average. This is very important and realizing how quickly information
can spread across the Internet by means of Twitter in particular. The tweets of
trending topics were also analyzed and reports indicated that over 85% of topics
are headline news or persistent news. This is important to consider as we look at
celebrities that are constantly in the headlines and that have a substantial part in
trending topics on twitter.
22. Kwak, Haewoon, Hyunwoo Chun, and Sue Moon. "Fragile Online Relationship: A
First Look at Unfollow Dynamics in Twitter." CHI '11 5.5 (2011). Web. 22
Nov. 2011. <http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1979104>.
One aspect of this project is analyzing how fans respond to the
negative news that surrounds their favorite celebrities. Followers that
respond negatively may choose to unfollow these celebrities. Unfollowing can
also occur for different reasons. Maybe their celebrity doesn’t tweet enough
so there is no need to follow them since there is nothing to keep up with. Or
maybe, their celebrity tweets too much and is causing too much clutter on their
Twitter timeline. Reasons that people unfollow other people can vary by a lot and
his article helps to shed some light on this.
Page | 14 23. Lanka, Janis. Who Follows Whom on Twitter. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://whofollowswhom.com/>.
This website allows you to see how many follower any number of people
have in common. Showing these mutual friends is essential because the project
goal is to analyze certain celebrity personas on Twitter and how these
celebrities interact with their fan base. Therefore, if the celebrities share similar
followers or don’t share similar followers, this should be taken into
consideration when analysis for why they interact with their followers
differently is done.
24. "Light-skinned vs. Dark-skinned Wale Controversy | Music and I Connect like
Brownstones in Bedstuy…." Music and I Connect like Brownstones in Bedstuy…
| SAKIR (sah Keer)- Sincere Appetite for Knowledge Increases Righteousness. 15
Feb. 2010. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://djsakir.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/lightskinned-vs-dark-skinned-wale-controversy/>.
This article describes in more detail the controversy surrounding Wale’s
“Pretty Girls” video.
25. Lincaster, Michelle. "Evelyn Lozada Dating Chad Ochocinco!" Allvoices.com: Local
to Global News. 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6581273-evelyn-lozada-datingchad-ochocinco>.
This article just goes into some details surrounding the relationship
between Ochocinco and Lozada.
26. Marwick, Alice, and Danah Boyd. "To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on
Twitter." SAGE Journals Online. Convergence: The International Journal of
Research into New Media Technologies. Microsoft USA. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://con.sagepub.com/content/17/2/139.short>.
This article outlines the essence of what this project is about.
Celebrity practices on Twitter can be vary different from their practices in real
life. This is why their Twitter personas can be so important to their career. Twitter
can be a place for them to be a completely different person or for them to be
the same person. Either way, it is very helpful to know what some of these
practices are, their intentions, and their general effect.
27. McGreal, Chris. "Mitt Romney's Mormonism Costing Him Support among Religious
Republicans | World News | Guardian.co.uk." Latest News, Sport and Comment
from the Guardian | The Guardian. 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/23/mitt-romney-mormonismrepublican-voters>.
This article goes into detail about a documentary type movie that focuses
on how Mitt Romney’s Mormon announcement is going to effect his campaign in
the long run.
Page | 15 28. McKay, Hollie. "Double-Edged Sword: 'Fan Building' Twitter Can Also Expose
Celebrity Stupidity | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest
News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/11/21/double-edged-swordfan-building-twitter-can-also-expose-celebrity-stupidity/>.
When dealing with how celebrities interact with their fans on Twitter,
it is important to note that some Twitter accounts may not have as much free
will as they would like. Meaning, some celebrities are guided by their
managers, public relations worker, etc. in what to say, how to act, and what
to do on Twitter so that a certain image of them is maintained. However, some
celebrities tweet a lot of reckless things that probably wouldn’t be advised by
those that work for them. Sometimes the stupid things that celebrities’ tweet gets
them in a lot of trouble media wise, but more importantly is how their fans judge
them after the fact.
29. MediaBase LLC. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011
<http://www.americasmusiccharts.com/>
Compiles a diverse list of charts to show the top songs across certain
genres, etc.
30. “Mediatakeout.com: The Most Visited Urban Website In The World.” 16 Oct. 2011.
17 Oct. 2011<http://cdn.mediatakeout.com/index.html>
An urban gossip site that features pictures and updates on regular celebrity
outings as well as controversies.
31. Moguldom Media Group. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011< http://bossip.com/>
This gossip website focuses and discusses black popular culture and
the celebrities involved within this culture.
32. Muntean, Nick, and Anne H. Persen. M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and
Culture 12.5 (2009). Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.journal.mediaculture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/194>.
Twitter is only the newest social media website to be added to the list.
This article analyzes media in general (websites, TV, etc.) and how it affects
our lives today. It has now been engrained into our culture as something that
will define a generation. The relationship media has with our culture is
explored more deeply here.
33. MTV Networks. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011<http://www.mtv.com/music/>
Features celebrity updates, celebrity interviews, and the most viewed
music videos on the website as well as what MTV feels are the best songs at the
moment.
34. Natasha. "Ocho Cinco Goes In On The "BasketBall Wives" Nicki Minaj & Diddy
Make Their Debut? | The Young, Black, and Fabulous." The Young, Black, and
Fabulous | Celebrity Gossip Never Looked So Good™. 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 09
Page | 16 Dec. 2011. <http://theybf.com/2010/04/27/ocho-cinco-goes-in-on-thebasketball-wives-nicki-minaj-diddy-make-their-debut?page=1>.
This article describes Ochocinco and Lozada’s first real interaction –
which happened to be through Twitter – when he made a rude comment about
her show and she responded.
35. Orsini, Lauren Rae. "Chad Ochocinco Returns to Twitter and Not Everyone Is
Happy." Daily Dot. 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.dailydot.com/culture/chad-ochocinco-twitter-new-englandpatriots/>.
Ochocinco is notorious for getting into Twitter controversies .This article
explains how he got in trouble for “tweeting” during an NFL game that cost him
thousands of dollars in fines do to a rule that prohibits players from being on any
type of social media while they are playing in a game.
36. Pegoraro, Ann. "Look Who's Talking - Athletes on Twitter: A Case
Study."International Journal of Sport Communication (2010): 501-14.
Laurentian University, Canada. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://t063.camel.ntcpe.edu.tw/ezcatfiles/t063/download/attdown/0/%B
Do%AES%20Athletes%20on%20Twitter.pdf>.
Chad Ochocinco is being analyzed for our project. It was very
interesting to see another case study on athletes done seeing as how we will
be doing a case study on an athlete. Apparently, athletes communicate and
publicize things differently than other celebrities because of the nature of their
job. They have to be careful to not choose sides in some realms of sports as to
not ruffle any feathers and cause any rivalries with other fans that may be
following them. Also, athletes are some of the biggest endorsers in the world
so they have to be sure not to misrepresent the people that have hired them.
37. "Personas Case Study « Clearly It Works." Clearly It Works. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://clearlyitworks.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/67/>.
This article attempts to explain the way personas work in general. People
try their hardest to mold how the rest of the world views them – whether they
know it or not. By using this case study, we can see if some of the same thing still
applies to personas on the Internet.
38. Powers, Lindsay. "Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Upsets Religious Groups." The Hollywood
Reporter. 16 Apr. 2011. Web. 9 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lady-gagas-judas-upsets-religious179188>.
This article explains how and why Christian groups were upset with Lady
Gaga’s ‘Judas’ video.
39. S, Nathan. "Skin Color Controversy Surrounds Wale’s “Pretty Girls” Video - Refined
Hype." Refined Hype - Hip Hop Music & Culture. 9 Feb. 2010. Web. 09 Dec.
2011. <http://www.refinedhype.com/hyped/entry/wale-pretty-girls-video/>.
Page | 17 This article talks more about Wale’s video controversy.
40. "Social Media Personas - What's Your Twitter Personality Casestudy." Digital
Agency London - Cimex Media. 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.cimex.com/digital/whats-your-twitter-personality>.
This article analyzes how Twitter personas work. It is a different realm
from reality, but the two still intertwine and follow the some of the same
principles on how to carry yourself.
41. Stever, Gayle S. "Parasocial and Social Interaction with Celebrities: Classification of
Media Fans." Journal of Media Psychology 14.3 (2009): 28-68. Print.
This captures the essence of what this project is about. Our aim is to
look at how celebrities and fans interact with one another. This article
discusses what media fans are, how they act towards celebrities in general,
and how celebrities may respond to this. This can be used as a basis for some
assumptions on how fans will act on Twitter. Later, data from this project can
be used to disprove or prove some of the things mentioned in the article as
well.
42. Top40-Charts. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011< http://top40-charts.com>
Shows the top 40 songs by several different categories – continent,
country, genre, etc. – so it is easy to see an artists influence across multiple scopes
and spectrums.
43. Topsy - Real-time Search for the Social Web. Topsy Labs, Inc. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
<http://topsy.com>.
This website allows you to search, in real time, any news event by using
keywords and periods of time. This will be extremely useful for looking up
older news events that have occurred in certain celebrity’s lives that we would
like to analyze.
44. “Twitaholic: Tracking the Most Popular Users of a Certain Microblogging/Social
Networking Tool.” Twitter Counter. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011
<http://twitaholic.com/>
To create a diverse group of musicians to analyze, this website was used.
It shows the top 1000 most popular Twitter users based on how many followers
they have. It also shows how many people they are following, how many
updates/tweets they have, and how long they have been a member of the Twitter
community. The list updates itself a couple times a day.
45. Twitalyzer LLC. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011<http://www.twitalyzer.com/>
Once you type in a Twitter account name, you are able to see how you are
targeting your audience and then progress from there. It measures on the
following different scales for a wide range: impact, engagement, influence, clout,
generosity, velocity, followers, following, signal, lists, updates, retweeted,
retweeting, retweets per k, retweet ratio, referenced, referencing, references per k,
Page | 18 reference ratio, potential reach, effective reach, direct messages to, direct
messages from, klout score, klout amplification, klout network, klout true reach,
peerindex, peerindex authority, peerindex activity, and peerindex audience.
46. USA TODAY & Gannett Co. Inc. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct.
2011<http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/airplay-charts.htm>
Every week, this airplay chart is compiled and shows the most played 30
songs and the actually amount of spins they received as well as if they have
received more or less airplay from the previous week.
47. Williams, Mary Elizabeth. "Lady Gaga's Religion-baiting Controversy - Lady Gaga."
Salon.com. 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.salon.com/2011/04/12/lady_gaga_judas_video_controversy/>
This article goes more into depth about the religious controversy that
surrounded Lady Gaga’s music video.
48. Wilson, Jason. "Playing With Politics: Political Fans and Twitter Faking in PostBroadcast Democracy." SAGE Journals Online. SAGE Journals Online.
University of Canberra, Australia. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <SAGE Journals
Online>.
Mobile and social media forms are started to merge together with fanlike forms of media politics. In “post-broadcast democracies”, a minority of
citizens are affectively drawn to the ruckus caused by mediated politics.
Citizens are using raw political data and creatively putting them on selfpublishing platforms such as Twitter. This new media of politics is creating a
new type of fandom and creatively engaging some people to politics.
49. Wu, Shaoemi, Jake M. Hoffman, Winter A. Mason, and Duncan J. Watts. "Who Says
What to Whom on Twitter." ACM Digital Library (2011). Print.
The article discusses in general how people respond to others on
Twitter. This helps to distinguish if celebrity musicians interact with their fan
base in a similar manner or if they do something else to mold their persona.
50. Yahoo! Inc. 16 Oct. 2011. 17 Oct. 2011
<http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/charts/>
Shows the most popular music videos on the Yahoo! Music website
according to how many times they have been viewed.
51. YBF. "Chad Ochocinco & "Girlfriend" Evelyn Lozada Piss Off VH1 Michael Vick
Quits BET Reality Show | The Young, Black, and Fabulous." The Young, Black,
and Fabulous | Celebrity Gossip Never Looked So Good™. 24 Aug. 2010. Web.
09 Dec. 2011. <http://theybf.com/2010/08/23/reality-fab-chad-ochocincogirlfriend-evelyn-lozada-piss-off-vh1michael-vick-quits-bet-re>.
This article talks more about how upset VH1 was in regard to
Ochocinco’s and Lozada’s individual shows once the couple started dating.
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