ENGLISH VERSION
Social media influencers
in the “like” economy
Social Media Culture is a space for the reflection and promotion of the role that social media has in the consumption of goods produced in diverse areas of the cultural industry.
This space emerges from the three-year research project “Cultural Intermediaries in the Digital Age” financed by Chile’s National Science Commission (Fondecyt N° 11150095) that aims to understand how cultures and economies are generated in the cultural industry by analysing consumers’ practices in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. This project is led by Dr. Arturo Arriagada, associate professor in the School of Communications at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez.
This project proposes that these practices – and the role that digital technologies play in them- allow a group of consumers to operate as “cultural intermediaries” (Bourdieu 1984) between the consumption and production of goods and services. While sharing opinions and suggestions through online social media platforms about goods such as clothes, music, books, films or videogames, these actors operate as key agents in the production and reproduction of these markets.
The case study in this research project focusses on a group of Fashion Bloggers in Chile, who are key actors when it comes to the generation of value around goods and services. On the one hand, they are consumers who comment and share the characteristics and qualities of old and new products in their social networks. On the other hand, in several instances they become celebrities and develop knowledge and skills to build identities and to communicate them through their online social media platforms.
Social Media Culture is also a space where conversations and studies that explore the relationship between producers, consumers and digital technologies in the cultural industry converge. You can read more about other projects we are working on: