Digital intimacy performed in celebrity voice tweets: forging authenticity amid context collapse

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has been used as one of the primary media used for communication and intimacy between celebrities and their geographically dispersed fans. Within online environments, where the boundaries of diverse social contexts are fuzzy, and heterogeneous individuals are lumped together, it can be challenging for celebrities to forge authentic communication and build intimacy with their imagined audiences. Against this backdrop, this study seeks a nuanced understanding of performative intimacy in relation to the technological affordances that enable unique discursive practices that contribute to the development of the social ties between celebrities and fans. To this end, I examine the communicative practices deployed in a Korean hip-hop singer’s voice tweets to interact with his fans as a case study. The analysis reveals that different forms of authenticity – i.e. authenticity of voice, authenticity of performance and authenticity of effort – are involved in intimacy building through voice tweets. I argue that (re)constructing a context through discursive apparatuses may play a significant role as a performative practice that can provoke an illusionary sense of intimacy. I also argue that authenticity is contingent upon the audience’s perceptions, and authentic communication can be achieved through the interplay between celebrities and fans.