Automating fandom: Social bots, music celebrity, and identity online

Authors

  • Michael Reinhard UCLA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2020.1853

Keywords:

Digital fan communities, Fan labor, Identity, Identity politics, Pop music, Social media, Twitter

Abstract

In an analysis of the intersection of media and politics through the increased presence of social bots on social media platforms like Twitter, it becomes evident that years before internet bots were used for geopolitical cyberconflict, fan communities online were already subject to these forces in driving user engagement for music brands and celebrities. Fan scholars must interrogate the presence of these bot networks for their impact on online fan cultural activity.

Downloads

Published

2020-03-15

Issue

Vol. 32 (2020): Fandom and Politics

Section

Symposium

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Michael Reinhard

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

TWC Nos. 25 onward are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC by 4.0). For an explanation of the journal's reasoning, see the TWC editorial Copyright and Open Access. TWC Nos. 1 through 24 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, with TWC, not the author, retaining copyright.

Presses whose policies require written permission for reproduction should contact the TWC Editor; such permission is routinely given for no fee.