Thanks, Kate!! ✨

Thank you, Seamus! ✨

Huge thank you to my amazing PhD supervisors Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social and Crystal Abidin, as well as Eleanor Sandry @zigzaggery.space, and especially all of the friends and colleagues whose support helped me reach this dream milestone. 💖 Excited for what comes next!! ✨

In the thesis, I develop a grounded theory of "hyper-virtuality", arguing that the most successful virtual influencers are not those that seek to camouflage themselves as “real”, but rather those that embrace and celebrate the exceptionalism of their virtuality - ideas I intend to expand in future!

It combines a digital ethnography of 100+ virtual influencers across 11 platforms, interviews with their producers and industry stakeholders, and analysis of press, industry documents, and archival web, to chart virtual influencers' history, industry, and impact in the visual social media landscape.

My PhD project examines the phenomenon of "virtual influencers": fictional, animated characters that are native to social media, participate in visual social media cultures, and seek to accumulate the attention of online audiences, brands, and investors.

"The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism:
Celebrity Tech Founders and Networks of Power" by Ben Little and Alison Winch (2021) 🙌 www.routledge.com/The-New-Patr...

Our opening policy position reads:

And a reminder that _Algorithms of Resistance_ is fully #openaccess, so can be read by anyone, right now(!):

direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...