“Bytes, Web Camera, Democratisation!” A Critical Examination of the Internet’s Impact upon Celebrity Studies

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The Internet has both developed and challenged the predominant paradigms via which the phenomenon of celebrity is examined. This paper explores a variety of celebrity studies theories and tests their merits within the postmodern age of the Internet and its distinctive brand of celebrity. The relevance of several postmodern theories are analysed with respect to the Internet and celebrity, including the integral roles the simulacra and disembodiment central to the online realm play in rethinking conventional understandings of the relationships between audience and celebrity. Thus, this paper reveals the unique impact the Internet is having upon the notion of celebrity and its theorisations.