‘They know just what we do’: surveying David Bowie’s celebrity

In the West, surveillance by paparazzi and fans has become ‘normalised’ as celebrities come to ‘bargain’ some aspects of privacy as a fair exchange in return for public attention. Such panoptic visions subsequently afford spaces for discussion and commentary about celebrities via the increased ubiquity of distribution platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and imaging devices on mobile devices. This paper will determine the nature of the present digital conversations taking place about David Bowie and the fan interactions with them through an exploration of David Bowie’s star image on social media. Social media was selected because a number of sites are the primary spheres now for engagement between celebrities and their fan base.