Bodies in alliance: rethinking cultural and economic logics of social media celebrity constitution in Turkey’s new media ecosystem

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the cultural and economic logics of social media celebrity constitution under the contemporary conditions of advanced capitalism. Although the past two decades have witnessed a great deal of interest in the constitution of social media celebrities in the new media ecosystem, little research directly deals with the constitution of this kind of ‘statue’ and contemporary capitalism nexus. In this sense, the present article, through the lens of immaterial labour theory, will focus on the following research question: how are Turkey’s economic and political transitions reflected in the new media ecosystem, especially within the rising concept of neoliberal individualism? By taking up this question, this article will regard the cultural and economic logics of social media celebrities as immaterial labour and evaluate their role in the new media ecosystem by regarding Turkish YouTubers as its case study. This study argues that the constitution of social media celebrity and contemporary capitalism’s commodification logic are strongly tied to each other. The present study has found that the constitution of social media celebrity under the contemporary conditions of capitalism is reproduced by the macro transformation process into a new media ecosystem, especially in the case of Turkish YouTubers.