1.
From YouTube to TV,
and Back Again:
Viral video child stars
and media flows
in the era of social media
Dr Crystal Abidin | @wishcrys | wishcrys.com
A/Prof Tama Leaver | @tamaleaver | tamaleaver.net

2.
30 August 2017,
19 million views
https://youtu.be/-ioilEr3Apw

3.
a brief history of celebrity
1) celebrity and stars
media industry, celebrity industry
2) ordinary celebrity
tabloidization, demotic turn, emotioneering, presentational
media
3) reality TV celebrity
partially staged real people, content and commerce, non-
experts
4) celebrity relations
parasocial relations, direct interactions
5) microcelebrity
social media affordances, self-branding, relatability

4.
demotic turn
(Graeme Turner 2010)
“Ordinary People: celebrity, tabloid culture and the function of the media.” Pp. 12-32
in Ordinary people and the media: The demotic turn. Los Angeles: Sage.
new TV formats: reality TV, confessional talk formats, docu-soaps,
reality-based game shows
“liveness”: watching as is happening, real
replicability: acceleration, cyclical, use and disposal
celetoids (cf. Chris Rojek 2001): short lifecycle as public figure, no
particular talents (i.e. “virality”)
media industry: mediating industry celebrities  producing
celebrities
democratainment (cf. John Hartley 1999): less elitist, less on
information/education, more construction of cultural identities
diversity vs. democracy vs. demotic

5.
tv talk shows
(Laura Grindstaff 2002)
“The Genre Goes Hard-Core: A Brief History of Talk Shows and the Money Shot.” in The
Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows. Chicago: Chicago
Scholarship Online.
– saturation  sensationalism  spectacle
– interactional > observational
– first-person confessionals
– studio > real-world context
– (commercially) narrating lifestyles
– the gender of chatter  topics
– “homemaker entertainment”  demographic vs. “the woman
myth”
– “the money shot”: surprise, transgression, break social codes,
unveiling secret  a la carnival freak shows
– moral bankruptcy, voyeurism, lowest common denominator
– production labour of celebs vs. ordinary people

6.
DaddyOFive (USA)
https://theconversation.com/when-exploiting-kids-for-cash-goes-wrong-on-y

7.
Case Study: Sofia Grace (and Rosie)

8.
networked trajectories of viral child celebrity
1) viral happenstance
+ securing mainstream media debut
2) television debut
+ convert social capital to economic capital
3) branded grooming
+ sustaining demotic relatability
4) maintaining intimacies
+ cultivating diverse assets
5) expanded digital estates
+ networking across media industries
6) solidifying Influencer status
+ feeding social capital back to amplifier patron
7) return to the mothership

9.
Parasitic or symbiotic?
• Reversing the traditional flows; TV
producers watching for ‘early’ stage viral
stars [parasitic?]
• Are viral star turned into sustained
microcelebrities by TV, or is the power of
viral kids sustaining TV talkshows? Or
both? [symbiotic]

10.
Once in the spotlight …
• Whose helps viral kids
navigate (temporary?)
internet fame?
• Branding and monetization?
• Is this (often) free child
labour sustaining TV show?
• Online haters?
• Privacy after viral fame?
• Parents or/as producers?

11.
(Emerging) Conclusions
1. (Old media) TV + (new media) viral kids and
microcelebrity co-exist in unequal but ongoing symbiotic
and parasitic relationships.
2. Viral kids are immediately in heightened economies of
commerce, branding and attention, which need to be
carefully managed for child stars
3. Viral kids have rights (to privacy, etc) and these need to
exist despite extensive digital and televisual footprints.
4. Child stars (in film & TV) have often not fared well in
‘real’ life afterwards. Viral kids need better, more
carefully mapped, trajectories.