The document examines how Twitter cultivates an image of authenticity and immediacy for celebrities' tweets. It hypothesizes that Twitter users believe celebrities' tweets due to this image. A literature review explores how Twitter portrays real-time updates and examples show how it connects people during emergencies. However, tweets are often "raw" without fact-checking. Research through surveys and interviews found that while some users fully believe tweets, others are more skeptical due to awareness of media manipulation. In conclusion, tweets should not always be taken at face value as authentic representations of celebrities.

1. The Effects of the Image of
Authenticity and Immediacy
on Celebrities‟ Tweets
Kanittha T. 514 53140 28
Chayanit C. 514 53170 28
Parada S. 514 53564 28
Pornnicha C. 514 53593 28
Yosvadee K. 514 53724 28

2. Statement of Purpose
To examine the effects of the image of
authenticity and immediacy that
Twitter has cultivated from looking at
the tweets that have been posted by
celebrities, both in Thailand and
abroad.

3. Hypothesis
Twitter users whole-heartedly believe in
the tweets that has been posted by
celebrities because of the image of
authenticity and immediacy that
Twitter has cultivated.

4. The Nature of
Twitter

5. What is Twitter?
“A social networking and micro-blogging site
that is accessible via mobile phone, SMS, or a
web interface.”

6. What is Twitter?
• Enables users to keep in touch with people
through a sentence of up to 140 characters
called “tweets”
• 200 million users worldwide
• Available in seven languages

7. Twitter Users
1. “The Do-Gooders”
Those who provide their followers with valuable information,
news, tips, and advices.
2. “The Dreamers”
Those who tweet motivational words and optimistic ideas to
their followers.
3. “The Conversationalists”
Those who ask, response, and discuss questions regarding a
general topic of interest.
4. “The Thankful Darlings”
Those who spread the love and smiles to others.

8. Twitter Users
5. “The Wage Earners”
Those employees who are paid to tweet about their
company‟s service or product while trying hard not to
seem disturbing.
6. “The Humble Artists”
Those who tweet to promote their talents.
7. “The Friends with Benefits”
Those who tweet for friendship.
8. “The Seductors”
Those female users who tweet to attract men.

9. Twitter Users
9. “The Music Lovers”
Those who tweet about what song they are listening to.
10. “The Experts”
Those who often tweet about a certain thing, making
them look like experts through their biography and their
tweets.
11. “The Thoughtless Linkers”
Those who tweet just to spread the links to other websites.

10. Twitter Users
12. “The Automators”
Those who automatically tweet or send direct messages.
13. “The Ramblers”
Those who tweet to answer the question of “what are you
doing?”
14. “The Just Promoters”
Those who tweet just to promote brands, products, and
services.
15. “The Stars/Celebrities”
Those who tweet to promote themselves, to express
emotions and feelings, and to maintain relationship with
their fans.

11. Tweet Contents
Tweets = Pure Babbles

12. Tweet Contents
3.60% 3.75%
News Spam 5.85%
Self-promotion
8.70%
Pass-along-
value
40.55%
Pointless babble
37.55%
Conversational
Source: Pearl Analytics

13. Image of Immediacy
• “What are you doing?” was officially dropped
in 2009 due to the shift in users‟ focus, interest,
and behavior
• Replaced by “What‟s happening?”
• Encourages users to share and discover what's
happening in real-time among all the things,
people, and events they care about

14. Image of Immediacy
• Faisal, 16, went missing from his family‟s
home in Saudi Arabia
• Image of him, along with the contact
information of his family, was tweeted
• Found in less than three hours

15. Image of Immediacy
• 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile
• Use Twitter to connect with a local in the area
• She gave her sister-in-law‟s address to the local man and
asked him to go check on her
• With less than two hours, the man sent a direct message
to Breuker saying he found Maria and she is ok

16. Image of Immediacy
• Dr. Nattakul Yamprasert used his smart
phone to tweet and sent pictures of his
hospital after it had been hit by the flood at
Nakorn Ratchasima
• It worked and massive amounts of food and
relief supplies were delivered to the hospital
just in time

17. Image of Authenticity
• Twitter is also creating an image of
authenticity as well
• It delivers the users with
problems, updates, comments, concer
ns, and complaints of real-time events

18. Image of Authenticity
• Cultivates the sense that Twitter users
are the first hand witnesses of those
events, making them feel that what
they‟re reading is real
• However, just because Twitter claims
to offer “real-time” tweets by a “real
person” doesn‟t mean that it is not
mediated

19. Image of Authenticity
Kim was actually being paid $25,000 to tweet
about Reebok

20. Image of Authenticity
• Most of the tweets are just “useless” and
there is no real value in it
• Tweets are “raw”
– Typed and posted immediately
– No proofreading
– No reliable source to back up the
information

21. Celebrities‟
Twitter Usage

22. 1. As Self-Expression
• Update news and trends
• Provide insight into celebrity‟s world
• Interactive engagements with the
celebrity that are supposedly
„distant‟
• Illusion of intimacy

23. 1. As Self-Expression
Successful celebrity Twitter:
• A glimpse of everyday
life
• Mundane details of their
private lives

24. 1. As Self-Expression

25. 1. As Self-Expression
• Celebrity‟s Twitter feeds conversed their
own “celebrity-industry”
• Celebrity‟s tweets are one of the first
sources tabloids are drawn into
• Does not stop celebrities to tweet
about their personal life
However,
• Offers the celebrity-industry a way to
regain control over their image, to
challenge the real “truth”

26. 1. As Self-Expression
Lindsay Lohan‟s Case
“get the news straight from me”

27. 1. As Self-Expression
• Twitter enables the celebrity to
bypass other players in the circuit of
celebrity production
• Get back control over their image
• Increase the illusion of intimacy with
their audience or followers

28. 2. As Self-Promotion
• Promote themselves through the
constant updates of their work
schedule
• Download codes
• Answer his fans‟ questions

29. 2. As Self-Promotion

30. 3. As way to keep in
touch with their fans
• Nichkhun Horvejakul of
2PM joined Twitter with the
purpose of strengthening
the relationship amongst
him and his fans globally
• Although he is Thai, he
ranks third on Seoul‟s most
followed chart with
431,476 followers

31. 3. As way to keep in
touch with their fans
• He frequently tweets
whenever he has time in
order to keep his fan
updated on his daily
activities
• He sometimes responds to
his fans‟ messages personally

32. 3. As way to keep in
touch with their fans
FanTalk: randomly selects which tweet he
would respond to

33. Methodology

34. Methodology
1. Secondary research
• Statistics on the Internet
• Cases in Thailand and abroad
2. Primary research
• Online survey
• Interview

35. Secondary Research

36. Secondary Research
A survey by Brand Affinity Technologies
shows that:
• 61% of Americans ages 18-44 agree they
feel more connected to celebrities
because of online media and tools
• 14% have followed a star on Twitter, and
4% have used the application to send a
direct message to a celebrity

37. Secondary Research
A survey by Brand Affinity Technologies
shows that:
• More Americans would be most excited
to receive a direct online message from
their favorite celebrity (31%) than from
President Obama (20%)
• Twice as many people would prefer to
hear from their favorite athlete than from
the Dalai Lama

38. Secondary Research
Most followed on Twitter
Source: www.twittercounter.com

39. Secondary Research
Most followed on Twitter
Source: www.twittercounter.com

40. Secondary Research
• More people want to know what
Lady Gaga has to say (9.4 million)
than the President (7.4 million)
• More people are interested in Taylor
Swift's musings (6.0 million) than are in
breaking news from CNN (4.1 million)
Source: www.twittercounter.com

41. Secondary Research
Most followed News Agencies on Twitter
Source: www.twittercounter.com

42. Secondary Research
Cases from Thailand and abroad:
1. May Pitchanat
2. Dome Pakorn Lam
3. Ashton Kutcher
4. Courtney Love

43. Case 1: May Pitchanat
• She accused Rit The Star 6 of being
gay
• A matter of timeliness where the
actual tweets and retweets were
being posted in just a matter of
seconds
• The case has attracted a lot of
attention from the media and
Twitter users in general
• In the end, she apologized to Rit
through the network but his fans
might not put an end to this case
so easily

44. Case 1: May Pitchanat

45. Case 2: Dome Pakorn Lam
• A replica of Dome‟s Twitter account has
been made where it had all the same
details that he had on his real account
• The replica account created a big
confusion among Dome‟s followers and
the public
• Use“i” as a replacement of the “L” in Lam

46. Case 2: Dome Pakorn Lam

47. Case 3: Ashton Kutcher
• In April 2009, Kutcher
challenged CNN to get
one million followers on
their Twitter
• Kutcher ended up beating
CNN with less than 2,000
total followers
• A celebrity has more
followers than the number
one leading news agency

48. Case 3: Ashton Kutcher

49. Case 3: Ashton Kutcher

50. Case 4: Courtney Love
• In March 2009, she accused Simorangkir, a
fashion designer of being a drug pusher and a
prostitute after they had quarreled about Love
failing to pay for the outfits that Simorangkir
had designed for her

51. Case 4: Courtney Love
• A libel lawsuit was filed against Love
• Simorangkir‟s lawyer claimed that Love had
made at least 40 negative tweets about
her
• The dispute between Love and
Samorangkir has portrayed the first high-
profile defamation trial as a response to a
celebrity‟s online remarks on Twitter

52. Primary Research

53. Primary Research
1. Online Survey
– Varying in age and profession
– Online survey of 50 respondents all
of which are Twitter users
– 10 multiple choices questions
• Questions about perspectives on
the accuracy of celebrity tweets

54. Online Survey: Results
What kind of Twitter category do you mostly follow?
78.10%
73.10%
53.80%
38.50%
26.90%
23.10% 23.10%
19.20%
15.40%
11.50%

55. Online Survey: Results
Why do you choose to follow celebrities?
13%
To have a direct
connection
20%
Their tweets are
inspiring
23%
Their tweets are 44%
interesting To know their
updates

56. Online Survey: Results
Do you whole-heartedly believe in the news that
celebrities posted?
25
20 46%
15
28%
26%
10
5
0
Yes No Sometimes

57. Online Survey: Results
46% of respondents said YES
• “Yes. Because I don‟t think they would
tweet hoax—especially not when the
social spotlights are on them.”
• “I do because if it's official account then
I don't think s/he would lie to everyone.”
• “Yes. It‟s first hand.”
• “Yes. They have no reason to lie.”

58. Primary Research
2. Interview with fans
• Qualitative interview at Chulalongkorn
University and Paragon
• To identify users‟ attitude towards Twitter‟s
immediacy and authenticity
• Total of 10 interviewees varying in ages
and profession

60. Interview: Results
• Answer were similar
• Most people use Twitter for tracking down
updates
• All interviews follow at least one celebrity
and prefer to use Twitter to find out of
information about their favourite celeb
through Twitter from other channel
• Most admitted that they partially believe in
celebrity‟s tweets

61. Results
• Online Survey- supports the hypothesis as
46% of respondents whole-heartedly believe
in celebrities‟ tweets
• Interview- partially supported

62. Conclusion

63. Conclusion
• The difference between the results
from the two methods can be
explained by:
1. Knowledge of media
consumption
2. Tweets are “raw” in nature

64. 1. Knowledge of
Media Consumption
• Changing drastically - more
compelled to share their feelings
• Integration of celebrities and social
networking
– TV Network recognize social
networking power as “second half”
of the experience

65. But how much of this type of
consumption is genuine?

66. According to our in-depth interview, half of
celebrity twitter followers either partially or
don’t believe in celebrities‟ tweets at all:
• Respondents‟ awareness of the nature of
the celebrity - not accounted for journalism
ethics
• Followers are attentive to the misleading
facts:
“I partially believe because they sometimes tweet
pointless stuff.”

67. 2. Tweets are “Raw”
• Celebrity twitter account is authentic
– e.g. Justin Bieber‟s Twitter with 8,887,974
followers
• However, celebrities‟ tweets are not
authentic
• Note that Twitter is most often used to prop
the existing star image

68. Kayne West’s Tweets
“Sometimes I get emotional over fonts.”
“Just looking at my closet, woo suits, fedoras, trenches, and
furs…I’m bout to put fall in the hospital…Ima hurt the season”
• He is reifying his
existing image
• No proof that
Kanye West
himself is typing
these words

69. 2. Tweets are “Raw”
• Acceptance of Twitter accounts as the end
of organized publicity and manufacture of
image should be re-considered
• No device or people check the tweets to
prove that these tweet are real
• No barrier filtering the information

70. • Lastly, no matter how real the tweets
seem, it‟s still part of the celebrities‟
cultivation of his or her image
So be smart about what you take as “truth”
and make sure you use your judgments before
consuming celebrity‟s tweets