Abstract

Recently, celebrities have become more candid with their narratives than ever before through use of their social media accounts. While most celebrities use their social media accounts for purposes such as showing a positive or unknown side of them or to promote their work, others have posted narratives that have come under public criticism, especially Kanye ‘Ye’ West with his recent antisemitic-themed posts. In my study I examine what Kanye’s fans and the public believes to be his motivation for his recent narratives in October 2022 and December 2022, and their reasoning for assigning these motives. I collected a total of 30 comments based on levels of interactions (likes, replies, shares/retweets) from three different artifacts found on various media outlets on different social media platforms, then conducted a thematic analysis of these comments and interactions. The comments were retrieved from an article posted by CNN to Twitter, a YouTube video of a Fox 26 Houston news segment, and another YouTube video from celebrity Charlamange Tha God for his show “Hell of a Week”. The three themes for motivation that emerged from the analysis were ‘fake news’, ‘marketing ploy’, and ‘mental health crisis.’ The findings are discussed relevant to narratives, social media use, parasocial relationships and the influence these have on construction of self-concept and identities through narratives.

Advisor

Anne Kerber

Committee Member

Ivana Guarrasi

Date of Degree

2023

Language

english

Document Type

APP

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Program of Study

Communication Studies

College

Humanities and Social Sciences

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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