BIBIPERIGOSA:ANANALYSISOFMICROCELEBRITIESANDAPOCRYPHALNEWS

BULLETINs

Abstract:
This paper aims to investigate the intermedia agendasetting through the
microcelebrity concept, using the idea of the apocryphal news bulletin. Increasingly,
the news bulletins use audiovisual contents shared on Web platforms to increase their
audiences, since these contents were previously seen on the Web. Therefore, this
research focuses on the new aspects of the journalistic communication toward the
popularization of mobile gadgets with Internet access and of, mainly, the newsmaking
processincontemporaryculture.
Keywords:
apocryphalnewsbulletins,microcelebrity,intermediaagendasetting.

This paper analyzes the videos and images published on Web platforms
influencing the agenda setting, using the concept of microcelebrities from the
perspectiveofapocryphalnewsbulletins(seeAndrade,2010Andrade,Azevedo, 2010),
which is a consequence of the performances and interactions in online settings causing
new forms of interpreting the facts. Thisphenomenoncouldbeseenasbeingoriginated
fromoutsidethetraditionalnewsmakingprocesses.
This study is based on the concepts of microcelebrity (Braga, 2008),
convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006), intermedia agenda setting (McCombs, 2009), and
emergent technology (Postman, 1993). From this perspective, the aim is toanalyzethis
topicandconsequentlytostructurethefundamentalaspectstodevelopthisproposition.
The agendasetting from Web contents was discussed by McCombs and it was
called by intermedia agenda (McCombs, Reynold, 2009, p.12). According to the
authors, the intermediaagendasettingisbasedoncomposingthemediaagendanotonly
withthepublicagenda,butalsowithotherplatformssuchasblogsandwebsites.

(...) the interactions and influence of various mass media on each other (...) [characterize] a
phenomenon called the intermedia agenda setting. To a considerable degree, these interactions
reinforce and validate the social norms andtraditionsofjournalism.(McCombs,Reynolds,2009,
p.11)

Social networking websites could be used as references for the news making,
since they have thousands of users and a significant amount of content updated faster
than by the media outlets. These contents are almost finished, since they need, most of
time,tobeframedaccordinglytothenewsmediacorporationspolicies.

The news media bulletins attempt to renewal the news production criteria in
order to remain relevant for Web platforms, therefore they seek Web contents. Some
materials published on Web platforms employed some techniques used in the news
making processes, at the same time they are part of aninteractivesetting.Itispossible
to think of this as a strategy employed by individuals who are nostalgic of an old
technology. They start giving new uses in order to avoid a potential obsolescence and
to keep a given technology relevant, as they link it to the emergent technology
(Postman, 1993, pp. 114115). On the other hand, we perceived this attempt as a
strategy to gain the Web audiences, most of themdevotedtobloggers.Wemaysuggest
a kind of competition, which is formed in the moment the news media broadcasts seek
to highlight the most popular contents on Web platforms (such as, social networking
websites, commenting on online communities and blogs.) The news bulletins would be
attempting to attract the public formed around bloggers as they mention them on their
platforms.
The Web technologiespresentedsomepossibilitiesforlaypeopletoexpresstheir
ideas and to share relevant information. Web platforms, such as social networking
websites, and their access through mobile gadgets have made the process of online
publishing easier, as well as they caused some people to become popular in these
settings. These people become prominent due to their online performances and
interactions,andtothecontenttheyshare.
Consequently,theseindividualsearnamicrocelebritystatus,whichisheldby:

(...) people that become notable as they earned a significant symbolic value, due to their
performances in anonlinesetting(....).Itencompassesmediaprocesses highlyselectivein
terms of audience, as these media environments attract a certain type ofpublic interested
in a given topic. The prefix micro relates to the appearance of phenomena similar to
those found on the mass media, however the character becomes prominent in an online
setting but in a small scale. Those processes function as an important element in the
formation of a blognexus(...) astheydetermineatacitsymbolichierarchybetweenblogs
and their authors, which is crucial to determine these dynamics and to consolidate the
legitimacyoftheircontent.(Braga,2008,p.280).

Microcelebrities take advantage of the Web platforms and make the contents
created by them available in a way that allows their followers to be updated with their
productions. As Braga pointed out, microcelebrities determined the way their
information will be shared and spread, therefore making the best of each of these
platforms in an integrated form. The way the integration is made will be caused by the
sharing of links, images and videos, as well asthe suggestionofpostsandblogs,which
couldbecrucialtoearnamoreprominentstatusintheblogosphere.
Those resources are used to influence the way a microcelebrity redirects an
audience for his/her contents. Thus, they are responsible for determining the network
that will define where he/she will be performing and interacting. Those places
encompass, among other things, the comment sections of blogs, a personal page on
Twitter and/or Facebook, a channel on YouTube, a personal email account. Braga
(2008, p. 279) called this interconnection media complementarity, which makes
accessible and complements the communication between the participants of an online
setting. The dynamics of content exchanges and the contact among a blognexus
participant, and between them and a microcelebrity, could be intense. This intensity is
not determined exclusively by thequantityofinteractionalelements,suchascomments,
butalsobytheimpactthecontentspostedbyamicrocelebrityhaveintheblogosphere.
Therefore, the microcelebrity status is caused by the fame earned from
performances and interactions on Web platforms, as well as by the attention received
afteracontentispublishedonline.
The visibility of contents created by a microcelebrity becomes wider in the
moment news bulletins are interested in what he/she posts online. There is a potential
audience willing to follow a microcelebrity behind the comments, evaluations and
his/her prestidge. Thus, once a personal video footage was presented on a TV show, a
microcelebritywouldbecomemorepopular.
We analyzed videos from the blog of Fabiana Escobar, knownasBibiPerigosa,
wife to Saulo de S, former drug dealer of Rocinha, which is currently imprisoned in
Bangu I penitentiary, in order to illustrate the process of using Web contents in news
bulletins. The blogger recorded video footages that were used by news outlets to make

up news about the imprisonment of Saulo in 2008. Based on this material, we

investigated a difference in framing and approaching the videos, firstly from the
perspective of Bibi Perigosa, then the view from the Record network through the
conceptoftheconceptofapocryphalnewsbulletin.
Before Saulo was imprisoned, Bibi Perigosa used to sharing images and videos
of her wealthy lifestyle, due the status her husband had in Rocinhafavela.Thepictures
and videos depicted travels, expensive gifts and goods, which confirmed the expensive
way they lived. Those posts helped the authorities to find whereSaulowashidden,and
to make Bibi Perigosa a microcelebrity because she hadaverypopularblogand social
networkingprofiles.
Bibi Perigosa gained a renowned Web status in the Brazilian blogosphere. Her
profile on Twitter @bibiperigosa has 1,055 followers, a significant number for a
person that once had no connections with the elite media. Her blog
http://www.bibiperigosa.blogspot.com.br has more than 86,000 hits per day, and the
contents report moments before Saulos emprisonment, as well as the current status of
Bibi. Bibi is used to sharing sensual photos and videos on her Twitter and YouTube
accounts. As an attempttostayrelevantasamicrocelebrity,Bibiturnedher postsmore
appealingbymakingrevelationsandshowingoffherbody.
The video under analysis made a reference to a series of contents originally
posted by Bibi Perigosa. However, the way these contents were framed give them
another perspective. The fundamental difference relies on the purpose of sharing that
information. If for BiBi it was a form to make a deliberate display of her and her
husband power in Rocinha, to the news bulletins was a form to complement aseriesof
accusation and to evidence a wealthy statuts earned illegally. That is the fundamental
pointweaimedtofocus,becausetheprocessofframingareresponsibleforrecreatinga
content, and to legitimizetheinterpretationgivenbythenewsmediaoutlets.Oncethese
contents were edited and reframed by media outlets, they become the material for
reportingafact.

Regularly some news bulletins have referenced videos found originally on the
Web. Consequently, those materials can be framed by different media. Jenkins (2006)
definedtheflowofcontentsamongdifferentmediaasconvergenceculture.

(...) convergence does not depend on any specific delivery mechanism. Rather, convergence
represents a paradigm shift a move from mediumspecific content towards content that flows
across multiple media channels, toward the increased interdependence of communications
systems, toward multiple ways fo accessing media content, and toward ever more complex
relations between topdown corporate media and bottomup participatory culture(Jenkins,2006,
p.243)

Consideringthecurrentscenario,thoseproductionscouldnotbeexclusivelyona
single medium, nor to be thought to remain only on a support.Thus,thenewsbulletins
seek tofeedfrom thecontentsavailableontheWebinanattempttocome closertotheir
audiences. On the other hand, the independent voices, most of time represented by a
microcelebrity, become crucial to renegotiate the relationship between a news bulletin
anditsaudience.
As Jenkins (2006) pointed, this relationship have been built based on an
openness provided to online contents created by laypeople once they feature on media
outlets. The renegotiation takes part in the momentthenewsbulletinsbasetheiragenda
setting on videos recorded by common people, consequently allowingthemtobeunder
the spotlight. Therefore, producers manage to adapt the news making to the social
practicesderivedfromtheuseofWebmechanisms.
Consequently, the apocryphal news bulletins are inspirational to investigate the
challenges of the news making process in the current scenario, giventhecircumstances
where journalists are forced to rethink their roles and the way they perform the
productionofnews,mostlyonthenewsbulletins.
Lastly, the apocryphal videos have been already partofarealitymadeupbythe
audience, which feed many websites with contents sharedontheWeb.Thisperspective
that is to make apocryphal videos available to media outlets as natural objects for
composingareporttobeinformedasnews.


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Submittedon:
10/08/2012
Accepted:
03/08/2013