‘You’re born to be brave’: Lady Gaga’s use of social media to inspire fans’ political awareness

Through interviews with 45 self-described Little Monsters, we explore fan identification with Lady Gaga’s interest in and messages about politics and philanthropy, Gaga’s influence on fans’ attitudes toward activism, and the role activism plays in the Little Monster community. Our findings suggest b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of cultural studies Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 603 - 619
Main Authors Click, Melissa A., Lee, Hyunji, Holladay, Holly Willson
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.11.2017
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Activism
Attitudes
Audiences
Celebrities
Consciousness
Identification
Internet
Mass media
Philanthropy
Political activism
Politics
Social media
Social networks
Values
Virtual reality
audiences
fan activism
networked publics
Lady Gaga
social media
celebrity activism
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Summary:Through interviews with 45 self-described Little Monsters, we explore fan identification with Lady Gaga’s interest in and messages about politics and philanthropy, Gaga’s influence on fans’ attitudes toward activism, and the role activism plays in the Little Monster community. Our findings suggest both that fans can be deeply impacted by celebrities’ political values and actions, particularly when expressed through social media, and that the online, networked fan communities that develop around celebrities are socially supportive and politically engaged. We assert that fans’ identification with celebrities’ political values and actions, and the engagement of networked fan communities, demonstrate that the enforced distinctions between ‘audiences’ and ‘publics’ are outdated.
ISSN:1367-8779
1460-356X
DOI:10.1177/1367877915595893