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With the emerge of Web 2.0, came many new systems and norms that took over the web as it became a platform. The popularity of blogging transformed the way people utilised communication on the web and began an idealisation on specific users and their expressions. Thus, this bred a new form of celebrities known as “microcelebrities” (Senft, T. 2013). With this new wave of idealised people, comes the complication of the definition of a mircrocelebrity issues such as privacy and their effects on individuals and society as a whole. Influenced by the structure of Web 2.0. There are 4 different sources that explains this new concept.

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What Is Web 2.0. http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a//web2/archive/what-isweb-20.html In this article, O’Reilly describes the big changes of the web initiated by the burst of the dot.com bubble in 2001. Being the head of the company that coined the concept “Web 2.0” and the one who set out key distinctions of the changes, O’Reilly goes into depth in this article on the ideas of web transforming into a platform through the systematic changes of websites from product to platform. This article thus is set to clearly distinct the meaning of Web 2.0 and the distinction from the web prior to 2001. This article is useful to the topic of Microcelebrities as it touches on what caused the rise of popularity in blogging, which essentially started the trend of microcelebrities. O’Reilly explains the contributions of RSS and permalinks that added the functionality of notifications and wide-spread sharing of sites and sources, advancing the way people perceived another’s updated content. This article is ultimately a complete guide to the changes of Web 2.0, as described the ones who coined the concept. This article provides insights on how blogging became popular and thus can correlate to the rise of microcelebrities, however, it does lack the insights of the popularisation of social media as an everyday platform as it was published in 2009. Thus, this article can be an explanation of the rise of blogging as a medium for micro celebrities but cant provide information on furthermore.

Senft, T. (2013). Microcelebrity and the Branded Self. In (eds.) Burgess and Bruns. A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 346-354. The book by Senft, T is one that focuses on the everchanging dynamics of contemporary digital media and its effect on society. In one chapter, it proposes the idea of a microcelebrity. This chapter dives into the many categories of complications that has been brought about from the emergence of online superstars. It aims to outline and introduce the problems emerged from firstly, bloggers and “cam girls” to now a wider variety of microcelebrities. As a source focused primarily on microcelebrities, this chapter is extremely important to the topic. It addresses the identification of online identity in three different ways; defines microcelebrities and the separation from traditional celebrities; brings about issues such as privacy, individuals as sellers, buyers and even goods; and identifies the branded online self as an instrument of capitalist. The wide range of information brings insights to the definition and issues of microcelebrities and lacks very little limitations, except for perhaps personal studies involving individuals who have engaged in such internet royalty to seek exclusive information.

Anastasiji, K.& Tsetsegsaikhan, J. (2016). Attitude towards Instagram micro-celebtrties and their influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions This next source is a research design, specifically chosen and conducted to test the relationship between online branded promotions and consumer purchasing. Based on previous peer reviewed literature, this study hypothesised that social media and microcelebrities on platforms such as Instagram can heavily effect ones decision to purchase items. Using a qualitative design, researchers conducted in depth interviews with 38 active Instagram users and found that although users generally follow many microcelebrities with a large following and are constantly exposed to product placement and/or photos with branded items, followers generally do not trust the representation in such photos and are ultimately unaffected when purchasing items. However, as described in the report, this research is limited by factors such as the small demographics focused solely in Russia and Instagram users and must appeal to a wider sense of marketing and branding. This research is still very important to the idea of microcelebrities and their effect on individuals as it shows that in terms of purchasing decisions, individuals are not as affected as it may seem on the surface.

Lastly, this next article examines Julie Van Vu, a transgender vlogger on the platform ‘Youtube’. The aim of this article is to establish the characteristics of a micro-celebrity and the bringing about of diversity and connectedness to individuals. This journalistic examination of microcelebrities effectively outline the medium Van Vu utilises to brand himself. The journal first describe the style of his videos and then shows how he turns his transgender appeal as a medium of capital and brans himself through his videos. Furthermore, this journal depicts just how microcelebrities can appeal to specific individuals and bring about personal promotion to diversity. This journal is specifically fitting in conveying the characteristics of microcelebrities, it’s differences from mainstream celebrities and the impact it has on individuals, as it specifically focuses on a particular case of Van Vu, and the video’s impact on it’s users. All in all, all four sources are effective in different ways. The first one introduces the concept and emergence of Web 2.0, which then allows for the second book chapter to classify the definitions and problems of the newly formed concept of microcelebrities. The Third research report then hypothesises and tests the effects of consumerism of microcelebrities and finally the last journal article focuses on one case to see exemplify the specific traits and impact of a microcelebrity....