Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers: How Influencers Reshaped Social Media
Autor Angèle Christinen Limba Engleză Paperback – 19 noi 2026
In this eye-opening book, digital studies scholar Angèle Christin demystifies the content creator economy, explaining its long history and the pitfalls of its professionalization. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork with digital creators as varied as vegan YouTubers, dads of Instagram, and self-described drama commentators, Christin shows how individuals enter social media creation, how they make money, and how their online environments shape their content.
Aspiring creators often dream of a better life in social media careers. Yet these dreams soon turn into exhaustion as influencers try to meet the contradictory demands of platforms, brands, and audiences. Over time, Christin shows, creators cluster into three types: hucksters, who work on behalf of brands; entertainers, who chase virality and platform payments; and gurus, who monetize the loyalty of their fans. Platform dynamics push entertainers and gurus to create extreme and incendiary content to maintain audience engagement, while brands and marketers nudge hucksters toward repetitive, staid commercial performances. Concerns about algorithmic manipulation and conflicts between creators further lead to reputation-damaging, harassment-laden scandals. Christin reveals how platform labor repeatedly—and structurally—fosters precarity and inequality, destructive drama, and inflammatory content online.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780226830940
ISBN-10: 0226830942
Pagini: 240
Ilustrații: 8 halftones, 4 tables
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
ISBN-10: 0226830942
Pagini: 240
Ilustrații: 8 halftones, 4 tables
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
Notă biografică
Angèle Christin is associate professor of communication, a Richard E. Guggenheim Faculty Fellow, and a Senior HAI Fellow at Stanford University. She is the author of three books, including the award-winning Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms.
Cuprins
Introduction
Chapter 1. From Culture to Drama
Chapter 2. Follow Your Passion
Chapter 3. Monetization in Action
Chapter 4. Feeding “The Algorithm”
Chapter 5. Authenticity Experts
Chapter 6. Vegan Drama
Chapter 7. Big Dad Energy
Chapter 8. What’s the Tea?
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Methodological Appendix: A Digital Journey
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Chapter 1. From Culture to Drama
Chapter 2. Follow Your Passion
Chapter 3. Monetization in Action
Chapter 4. Feeding “The Algorithm”
Chapter 5. Authenticity Experts
Chapter 6. Vegan Drama
Chapter 7. Big Dad Energy
Chapter 8. What’s the Tea?
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Methodological Appendix: A Digital Journey
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Recenzii
“Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers is a riveting, eye-opening tour through the world of online creators. Christin combines colorful stories with sharp insight to explain how influencers build audiences, make money, and manage life under scrutiny. This is a critical read for those wanting to understand how the attention economy has reconfigured social media.”
“Influencers are everywhere and their lives are on display, so we think we know them. Christin shows that we don't; that we only know the sunlit tip of the iceberg. This book is the best available sociological analysis of everything that lies submerged underneath: the hordes of underpaid, often abused, algorithmically dispensable individuals who toil for the rewards reaped by platforms, brands, and social media companies; the ‘cruel optimism’ of the influencer career, which begins with the exhilarating sense of following one's passion, yet ends with the overwhelming sense of constantly needing to feed ‘the algorithm’; the self-appointed experts who harness influencers to the machine and judge whose performances are ‘authentic’ and whose are not. Christin writes about influencers with great sensitivity and empathy, allowing readers to understand their choices and their self-presentation in the context of the larger social and economic forces impinging on them.”
“An incredibly useful and original book. Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers helps make sense of an industry that seems to become more unwieldy by the day.”
“Influencers are everywhere and their lives are on display, so we think we know them. Christin shows that we don't; that we only know the sunlit tip of the iceberg. This book is the best available sociological analysis of everything that lies submerged underneath: the hordes of underpaid, often abused, algorithmically dispensable individuals who toil for the rewards reaped by platforms, brands, and social media companies; the ‘cruel optimism’ of the influencer career, which begins with the exhilarating sense of following one's passion, yet ends with the overwhelming sense of constantly needing to feed ‘the algorithm’; the self-appointed experts who harness influencers to the machine and judge whose performances are ‘authentic’ and whose are not. Christin writes about influencers with great sensitivity and empathy, allowing readers to understand their choices and their self-presentation in the context of the larger social and economic forces impinging on them.”
“An incredibly useful and original book. Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers helps make sense of an industry that seems to become more unwieldy by the day.”