CDS Seminar Series: Sophie Bishop

Sophie Bishop’s book ‘Influencer Creep: How Optimization, Authenticity and Self-Branding Transform Creative Culture’ (University of California Press) draws from in-depth ethnography and interviews with influencers and professional artists. Bishop argues that looking to the shifts within influencer culture can help us understand contemporary changes to labour conditions, compensation and representation within creative industries. Taking seriously the motivations that drive more and more people into the contest for online visibility, Influencer Creep documents a creative workforce nervously conforming to the monopoly power of social media platforms—and occasionally resisting it. Early praise for the book includes “those in the art world will find plenty to chew on” (Publishers Weekly) and “both a page turner and thorough academic study” (Professor Thomas Poell, UVA).

Bio

Sophie Bishop is an expert in influencer culture and an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds in Media and Communications who has been researching the social and cultural implications of the influencer industry for a decade. Sophie, has advised policy makers in UK Parliament and the European Union on influencer culture and has written for academic journals New Media & Society, Social Media + Society and Media, Culture & Society and has been interviewed in Paper, Real Life, Financial Times, BBC and The Atlantic. Sophie lives in Manchester, England with her husband, daughter, and two cats. Influencer Creep is her first book.

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