The rise of virtual influencers Lil Miquela and Kim Zulu: an exploratory study of Instagram's platform capitalism from an African context
- Authors: Oosthuizen, Mikaela
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Virtual influencer , Platform capitalism , Instagram (Firm) , Lil Miquela (Fictitious character) , Neoliberalism , Social media South Africa , Application software
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478548 , vital:78196 , DOI 10.21504/10962/478548
- Description: We have never been more dependent on the platforms that connect us. As we increasingly conduct our social interactions and economic transactions online, our reality has stepped into the virtual and as a result the virtual has stepped into our reality. It is at this time, when the boundaries between reality and fiction are at their most destabilised, that a new type of online profile has emerged, namely virtual influencers. Virtual influencers, also known as computer-generated imagery (CGI) influencers, are neither humans nor robots but are visual creations that mimic the online profiles of human influencers and whose creation by brands and agencies is driven by explicit commercial intent. This research documents the incremental societal shifts that have facilitated an acceptance of virtual influencer profiles on platforms such as Instagram. I outline how years of social media use have altered perceptions of the nature of social media endorsement, expectations of online performance in adherence to platform capitalism logic and impressions of visuals as no longer grounded in reality. As a result, I highlight that the modern visual is no longer necessarily a means to capture reality but can actively construct that reality, while humans’ increasing synthetic portrayals online through hyper-editing have meant that virtual influencers’ human realistic portrayals are increasingly accepted and celebrated. The emergence of these virtual influencers necessitates a renewed investigation into the kinds of self that are deemed necessary to thrive in today’s cyber attention economy. I emphasise how two virtual influencers, in particular Lil Miquela and Kim Zulu, naturalise consumer identities through embodying an aspirational identity that appeals to Western and Southern audiences respectively. They also simultaneously enact an idealised version of the modern consumer that serves the commercial interests of the agencies that create them, and the Instagram platform they exist on. I therefore argue that the supply of virtual influencers is on the rise (given the advanced technical capabilities of creative agencies to execute the creation of human realistic visuals) as well as the demand for these virtual influencers (as brands increasingly see virtual influencers as able to generate higher returns with lower risks than their human influencer counterparts). Furthermore, the market acceptance is on the rise as we have become accustomed to the blurring of the authentic and the commercial on platforms such as Instagram. The consumer identities promoted in the constructed personas of these virtual influencers illustrate Instagram’s broader alignment with platform capitalism. I suggest that although Instagram positions itself as a free app, the true cost of the personal data we share and the labour we are expected to perform in creating, reacting to, and circulating content on the app, is often subverted. In the context of the global South, and Africa in particular, the naturalisation of these opulent consumer identities, as manifested in vehicles such as the virtual influencer Kim Zulu, takes on greater significance as the acquisition of possessions and the documentation of the attainment of a privileged lifestyle are a means of enacting a citizen identity previously denied to many in South Africa. My empirical research investigates the Instagram platform as an artefact from the three contexts in which meaning is constructed. Firstly, I present the site(s) of the production of an artefact where I conduct an app-walkthrough of Instagram in Phase One to demonstrate the architectural features that guide user behaviour towards sharing data, creating and consuming content and spending money on the app. Secondly, I present the site of the Instagram artefact itself in Phase Two where I conduct a multimodal discourse analysis of purposively selected virtual influencer content (18 Lil Miquela and 12 Kim Zulu Instagram visuals). I demonstrate how the mediated authenticity principles of predictability, spontaneity, immediacy, confessions, ordinariness, imperfection, and ambivalence are weaponised by virtual influencers to construct 1) an identity as relatable to followers; 2) a persona in keeping with expected celebrity/influencer behaviours, and 3) a posting pattern in line with Instagram’s platform-specific content creation genre. Lastly, I present the site of consumption in Phase Three, where I present the findings from semi-structured interviews conducted with Instagram users. Participants included one representative from the Kim Zulu team (the Representative) as well as 12 South African Instagram users split into three use-case groups namely the Privates; the Influencers and the Creatives. The boundaries between identity, commerce and commodification are blurring. This research explores how Instagram user behaviours are deliberately shaped to cater to platform interests. Virtual influencer personas thus project a consumer identity that benefits the profile and platform creators to the detriment of users. I furthermore present recommendations on researching virtual influencers in the academic space, and present guidelines for co-existing with virtual influencers in the online space. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
The role of open government data in the repurposing of land administration in postapartheid South Africa : an exploration
- Authors: Manona, Siyabulela Sobantu
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Transparency in government -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa , Qualitative research -- Methodology , Postcolonialism -- South Africa , Post-apartheid era -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994- , Open Government Data (OGD)
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/178397 , vital:42936 , 10.21504/10962/178397
- Description: Almost three decades after the official end of the apartheid, South Africa has been on a sturdy path that is characterised by deepening spatial economic inequalities. A plethora of policy instruments unleashed since 1994 had not only failed to stem the tide of poverty and inequality, but had deepened them. As part of this, South Africa’s most ambitious social engineering programme – land reform -- had disappointing outcomes. Premised on a view that these apartheid continuities were embedded in South Africa’s land administration system – which was incoherent and fragmented and requiring a systemic overhaul -- the study sought to explore the potential role of Open Government Data (OGD) in the repurposing of land administration system in the post-apartheid South Africa. To achieve this goal, the study was guided by the following objectives: to explore the ontology and the state of land governance and administration in the context of the post-apartheid South Africa; to undertake an evaluation or assessment of South Africa’s land data ecosystem; and to explore the potential role of OGD in the repurposing of land administration system in the postapartheid of South Africa. This study was steeped in qualitative research methods, underpinned by primary and secondary literature review. While the study was primarily pitched on a national scale – the combination of the systems and multiple scales approaches – yielded results which dislodges solutions that are required outside of the domain of a single state. This is one glaring example of land governance complexities that straddle beyond national scale – specifically in respect of new policy trajectories on trans-national boundaries and governance of water resources. Based on the holistic ontology of land, this study concludes that land administration and land governance overarching conceptual orientation -- concerned with land use decisions made by humans at various scales from a praxis and policy perspective –constitute two sides of the same coin, the former steeped towards practice and the latter steeped towards policy. Drawing from decolonial theories the study concludes that land does not only have multiple dimensions, but it also has multiple meanings, in a manner that calls for an ontological shift away from the western ontology, towards an inclusive and holistic conceptualisation. Historiography that is anchored in de-colonial thinking of South Africa’s land governance helps us understand how and why – colonial/apartheid norms acrimoniously found their way into the post-apartheid order -- the post-apartheid institutions of modernity rest on the same hierarchies of identities, classification and pathologisation. The study concludes that, while the colonial/apartheid administration may be gone, it’s underlying power matrices continue -- i.e. capitalism/European/patriachal/white – in a manner which explains the continuities of South Africa’s spatial inequalities and the associated economic inequalities. The organising principle for land relations (including opportunities) continues to be underpinned by gender, race and class, in ways that expose the mythical dimensions of the 'post-apartheid' underbelly. While identifying the need for homogenisation and rationalistion of colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid institutions (on a national scale) that is insufficient for the transformation of the colonial situation of what is in essence a part of the global system, the study advocates for the ‘repurposing of land governance and administration’ – underpinned by de-colonial thinking. Repurposing is seen as political imaginary that would entail uncoupling thought processes and praxis from the colonial matrices of power. The study goes on to conclude that there is a definite role for Open Government Data in repurposing of land administration in the post-apartheid South Africa – as a necessary, though in and of it’s own it is an insufficient condition to achieve that ideal -- but presents an opportunity to enhance transdisciplinarity approaches and efficiencies in internal government functioning and evidence-based decision making and policy formulation processes. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Geography, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04