Question: A) Burgess and Green argue that: ordinary people who become celebrities through their own creative efforts “remain within the system of celebrity native to, and controlled by, the mass media” (Reader, page 269)
‘YouTube celebrities’ refers to those persons or groups who become popular and famous through their appearances in videos on YouTube. It is by far one of the quickest and easiest way to become celebrity. According to Burgess and Green (2009:21), the common assumption for people to success through YouTube is that ‘raw talent combined with digital distribution can convert directly to legitimate success and media fame’. Media fame, however, as I will argue in the following part, remains largely controlled and influenced by the mass media. The success of Michelle Phan, a YouTube makeup artist, will serve as a perfect example.
Michelle Phan made her YouTube debut in late 2006, providing video clips on make up tutorials. She has since then created over 135 videos, and been dubbed the Number one YouTube “Makeup Guru” and her videos are viewed over 382,000,000 times, making her the 17th rated channel on YouTube. In November 2010, Michelle reached 1 million subscribers and became the most subscribed female on YouTube. Michelle now has over 1,337,000 subscribers. (Michelle Phan.com)
YouTube, however, is never the final step of being famous. Another major three steps has been point out in a ‘how to list’ on the subject of becoming a YouTube celebrity. These three last steps of becoming YouTube celebrity involve advertisement through social networks like Myspace, Facebook or Twitter, monetization of video pages such as selling merchandise as well as having affiliate sponsors, and finally moving onto other ventures to increase celebrity. (eHow.com)
In the example of Michelle Phan, she advertises herself via Facebook, Twitter and developed an official Michelle Phan website for subscribers to follow up, which includes columns like beauty and fashion, and also runs an online forum to ensure the interaction between her followers and her. Further investigation into her career, she has been contracted as the online spokesperson for Lancôme as well as the first ever video makeup artist of the world class beauty brand. (Chen, 2010)
Most importantly, what makes Michelle Phan stand out as a public figure is her continuous and non-stop involvement and recognition by all the celebrity media. She made her appearance in the August 2009 issue of Seventeen Magazine, the August 23, 2009 issue of St. Petersburg Times, the August 24, 2009 issue of the Sun Sentinel, and on the popular blog BellaSugar on April 19, 2009. Phan was also featured in a Chilean newspaper for her Barbie video. Recently, Phan was published in Nylon and Forbes Magazines, as well as the famous Vogue magazines.
Through the case of Phan, it is quite clear that Phan’s success as a vlogger and a video makeup artist is not the only result from the impulse of YouTube. Mainstream media plays a critical role in this process. As Turner (2004, cited in Burgess and Green, 2009:23) conclude, “demotic turn’ in media culture relies on the existing structures of celebrity to deliver ‘ordinary celebrity’ which, far from providing alternatives to the existing media industry, is produced and captured by it.”
Reference:
‘How to Become a YouTube Celebrity’, eHow.com <http://www.ehow.com/how_5000396_become-YouTube-celebrity.html#ixzz1OOD5XhJP> Last accessed: 04/06/2011
‘About Michelle’ <http://www.michellephan.com/about> Last accessed: 04/06/2011
Burgess, J & Green, J (2009). ‘YouTube and the Mainstream Media’, in YouTube: Online and Participatory Culture, Cambridge: Policy Press, pp.15-37
Chen, S. (2010) ‘Want Lady Gaga’s eyes? YouTube beauty gurus teach how to do it yourself’, CNN Living, <http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-08/living/youtube.beauty.gurus.stylists_1_video-encyclopedia-social-media-bad-romance-video?_s=PM:LIVING> Last accessed: 04/06/2011
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