Under the influencer: Participatory culture and the rise of the viratoid

Scott Jones, Emily Moorlock and Elizabeth Dempsey

Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 199, issue C

Abstract: A participatory culture encourages followers of Social Media Influencers (SMIs) to engage with the constructed online identities of prominent SMIs. We explore how ordinary consumers amass celebrity capital by willingly and wittingly associating themselves with renowned SMIs. We propose that these consumers are viratoids, developing their own online persona based on more prominent SMIs. Building on Chris Rojek’s theorization of a celetoid, an individual who achieves media attention for an intense but brief timespan, we propose the viratoid as a new form of celetoid. The viratoid seeks to achieve “fame” and viral online attention by amassing their own celebrity capital by creating content that piggybacks off the celebrity capital and/or “drama” of a well-known SMI. This has implications for how social media networks, marketers, and brands promote and manage SMIs and viratoids, including the amplification of mischievous and increasingly incendiary online content.

Keywords: Celebrity capital; Celetoid; Influencer marketing; Participatory culture; Social media influencer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325003704

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115547

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