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Monetising the Dividual Self

Monetising the Dividual Self

Julian Hopkins

(2019)

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Abstract

Combining theoretical and empirical discussions with shorter “thick description” case studies, this book offers an anthropological exploration of the emergence in Malaysia of lifestyle bloggers – precursors to current social media “microcelebrities” and “influencers.” It tracks the transformation of personal blogs, which attracted readers with spontaneous and authentic accounts of everyday life, into lifestyle blogs that generate income through advertising and foreground consumerist lifestyles. It argues that lifestyle blogs are dialogically constituted between the blogger, the readers, and the blog itself, and challenges the assumption of a unitary self by proposing that lifestyle blogs can best be understood in terms of the “dividual self.”


Julian Hopkins is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the School of Arts & Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. He has been researching the social and cultural implications of the internet and social media since the turn of the century, using a combination of ethnographic and sociological research methods.


“A valuable contribution to the field of New Media Studies… It provides rich and first-hand ethnographic insights into a transitory phase of the blog genre – from a point in time where we can see how other social media platforms and genres (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram) have built upon and further transformed practices of lifestyle blogging.” • Jan-Hinrik Schmidt, Hans-Bredow-Institute for Media Research, Hamburg

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Monetising the Dividual Self iii
Copyright iv
Contents vii
Figures ix
Tables x
Acknowledgements xi
Brief Chronology of Personal and Lifestyle Blogging in Malaysia xii
Introduction. Anthroblogia 1
Chapter 1. The Blog as Assemblage 11
Chapter 2. January 2006 28
Chapter 3. The Blogger and Her Blog 46
Chapter 4. May 2007 71
Chapter 5. Assembling Blogs and Bloggers 82
Chapter 6. April 2007 108
Chapter 7. Assembling a Blog Market 123
Chapter 8. January 2009 148
Chapter 9. Assembling Lifestyles 162
Chapter 10. October 2009 178
Conclusions. The Dividual Self and Emergence of the Lifestyle Blog 189
References 199
Index 217