The Practice of Micro-Celebrity in Bunda Corla’s Instagram Account

Abstract

The advancement of social media leads to the changes of celebrity practice. Needles to say, this made a progressive shift from traditional celebrities such as actors, musicians, and models who are taking a long process and journey to gain success in entertainment business to ‘micro-celebrity’ that is created by using social media platform such as Instagram. The objective of this research is to analyze the practice of micro-celebrity in Bunda Corla’s Instagram account. As an influencer or selebgram (celebrity Instagram) with million followers, Bunda Corla is known as a ‘woman’ who likes to share her everyday activities and ways of life with her fans through her live Instagram. She constructs herself as a single working ‘woman’ with ‘genuine’ and easy-going personality. In addition, she openly states that she has no interest in money and appearing in any official TV programs. Interestingly, many verified accounts follow her account and frequently participate in her live Instagram. By applying Marwick’s concept of ‘micro-celebrity’, netnography as well as textual analysis, this analysis also tries to investigate how micro-celebrity is practiced in social media. The finding of this research posits that Corla’s ‘genuine’ character can be negotiated in some aspects.