Transforming Celebrities through Social Media

Christine M. Kowalczyk, and Kathrynn R. Pounders. “Transforming Celebrities through Social Media: The Role of Authenticity and Emotional Attachment.” Journal of Product & Brand Management 25.4 (2016): 345–356. emeraldinsight.com.libproxy1.usc.edu (Atypon). Web.

The authors — Christine Kowalcyzk, Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at East Carolina University, and Kathryn Pounders, Assistant Professor at the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin — hone in on their communication knowledge and expertise when researching how social media platforms are changing the way consumers and celebrities engage and how consumers identify with celebrities through these online connections. Elaborating on the evolution and growth of social media sites, Kowalcyzk and Pounders draw parallels between the accessibility of social media and the consumers’ fascination with “connecting” to celebrities. After constructing a pilot study to further their research on this correlation, the authors were able to conclude that it is the information that celebrities are sharing via social media that creates this sense of relatedness and personal connection felt by the consumers for these celebrities. It is the celebrities’ career information, personal information, and authenticity that, when combined, make the celebrities seem very real, which in turn makes the consumers develop an emotional attachment. An empirical study was also done to gain numerical data to support the authors’ claims. The overall finding was conclusive — that social media humanizes celebrities, which spawns a sense of connectedness between the consumer and the celebrity.