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Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity

Chapter of: Social Media & the Self: An Open Reader

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Metadata
TitleIdols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity
ContributorBrooke Erin Duffy(author)
Jefferson Pooley(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.32376/3f8575cb.a52b2134
Landing pagehttps://www.mediastudies.press/pub/duffy-idols/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publishermediastudies.press
Published on2021-07-15
Short abstractBy analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation.
Long abstractBy analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation. Leo Lowenthal, in his well-known analysis of popular magazine biographies, identified a marked shift in mass-mediated exemplars of success: from self-made industrialists and politicians (“Idols of Production”) to screen stars and athletes (“Idols of Consumption”). Adapting his approach, we draw upon a qualitative analysis of magazine biographies (People and Time, n=127) and social media bios (Instagram and Twitter, n=200), supplemented by an inventory of television talk show guests (n=462). Today’s idols, we show, blend Lowenthal’s predecessor types: They hail from the sphere of consumption, but get described—and describe themselves—in production terms. We term these new figures “Idols of Promotion” and contend that their stories of self-made success—the celebrations of promotional pluck—are parables for making it in a precarious employment economy.