after reading the discussion post, answer the two following questions written below the prompt.
Skin deep: Callout strategies, influencers, and racism in the online beauty community
In her article, Lawson (2021) examines how influencers, brands, and audiences employ social media affordances to manage their roles and relationships as they manage their behaviours toward scandals. Lawson suggests two types of responses:
The audience’s response to brands and influencers’ scandals involves collecting receipts “screenshots� and using them later to initiate a scandal. According to Lawson, audiences also react to influencers’ scandals by expressing dislike and unsubscribing to the influencer’s channel (in this case YouTube channel is the example the text looks at).
Influencers and brands also use social media affordances to manage their responses to their own scandals. As Lawson suggests, they explain, apologize, and reframe. Another way influencers and brands can respond is by managing their visibility and minimizing labor through silence; however, Lawson shows that audiences are usually critical towards such responses and are not quickly sold into it.
Q1: Can you think of a current example of an influencer facing a scandal? Are they performing “explaining, apologizing, and reframing� or “managing their visibility through silence�?
Q2: Why do you think it’s usually hard for the audience to believe the genuineness of the influencer’s apology?
Q3: Do you think there could be more effective ways for influencers to regain the trust of their audiences after being involved in a scandal?
References:
Lawson, C. E. (2021). Skin deep: Callout strategies, influencers, and racism in the online beauty community. New Media & Society, 23(3),596–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820904697