Stars in social media: New light through old windows?

Sophia Gaenssle and Oliver Budzinski

No 123, Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers from Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics

Abstract: We review the economics of superstars, originally developed for stars in traditional media, and discuss whether they are applicable for the (allegedly) novel phenomenon of stars in social media (influencer, micro-celebrities). Moreover, we analyse potentially new factors for creating social media superstardom that may be special to the nature of social media. Our overall result is that the economics of superstars, like the role of talent, market concentration effects, MacDonald-style and Adler-style effects, remain applicable and relevant for social media stars. In line with this assessment, we find that several (allegedly) new star factors in social media, like user-generated content, prosumption, disappearance of gatekeepers and authenticity, turn out to be only partly applicable or just slightly different to traditional concepts. However, algorithm management and upload strategies represent novel success factors relevant for social media superstardom that are not captured by traditional superstar theories.

Keywords: social media; digital media; popularity; superstars; cultural economics; media economics; influencer; micro-celebrities; creators; user-generated content; prosumer; algorithm management; YouTube; Instagram; entertainment markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D43 D83 D91 F23 L13 L15 L26 L82 L86 M21 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-ict, nep-mic, nep-pay and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:123

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