Reputation management on social media : a case study of SA female hip hop artists

Abstract

Communication amongst human beings has significantly evolved throughout the years. Communication mechanisms in the modern era are different from those exercised in the past (Munoz, 2018: 1). Whereas communicating in the past was restricted to interpersonal communication, it gradually evolved to include words, radio, television, email and cellular phones amongst others. These developments are largely attributable to technological growth. With these increasingly fast-paced changes in means of communication, several technological communicating platforms have also been introduced to society. These platforms include popular applications (apps) such as Facebook, Instagram from Meta (Instagram), Twitter and WhatsApp from Meta (WhatsApp) amongst others. Collectively, these means of communication are referred to as Social Media platforms. Social media has emerged as an important and powerful tool across a variety of industries where data is used for various purposes. It has also emerged as a voice for people to express themselves and to communicate with each other. As per 2019 data from Statista (2020), there are 3.63 million active users on Instagram in South Africa and 16.9 million users of Facebook. This makes these two sites the most popular social networking sites in South Africa. Globally, an increasing number of ordinary citizens and those of certain social standings including musical artists, politicians, businesspeople, showbiz personalities, socialites and sports personalities, have joined social media platforms, which allows them to reach millions of people, including their fans, within the shortest period of time (Haynes and Marshall, 2018: 87). These platforms are also effective for the reputation management of different people who have used it for their benefit, through building an online image and becoming famous among social media users. Comments on social media platforms can potentially impact the image of the user; whether positively or negatively. One of the popular applications amongst the active users of social media platforms is Instagram. Instagram, owned by Meta, is described as an entirely visual platform where images are disseminated widely to followers. It is an internet site application with a user-created content that can be exchanged universally by those who have access to the application (Storrod and Densley, 2017: 44). Most South African users on Instagram are between the ages of 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 years and make up 30.9% and 34.6% respectively (Statista, 2020). Due to its visual nature and speed of data transmission, musical performers are also increasingly using Instagram to showcase their performances to their followers. Williams & Stroud (2010:40) make reference to “”Cipha performances have always attracted a huge audience and were an enormous success in showcasing rapper’ linguistic and discursive abilities.” The South African music industry is also experiencing an increase in female artists within the popular Hip Hop genre of music performing. These artists, in an effort to empower themselves through increasing their following, building their brands, increasing music sales and revenues, advocating for a certain social standing and basically sharing their life journeys with their followers, use social media platforms to achieve these objectives. Notably, female artists have integrated into a (hyper) masculine culture (Clark, 2018: 384) that characterises hip hop. They continue to create spaces within the industry and society in general so they can create their own story on sexuality and gender to oppose current paradigms. In this dissertation, there is an attempt to examine the use of social media by emerging female Hip hop artists and its impact on their social media image and individual reputation. The study is specifically aimed at analysing the social media of newly emerging South African female hip hop artists to understand how they portray themselves on social media platforms and how they manage their public image. Hip hop artists have been found to be highly expressive of their sexuality when showcasing their artistry and that has resulted in diverse opinions and views about them from different parts of society. The study, therefore, reflects on the role played by online reputation management with regard to South African newly emerging female hip hop artists and their professional image. Various sources define online reputation management as an effort to influence the perception of a person or a brand when viewed online, hence, reputation management campaigns are created to address these to improve consumer biases over time (Storrod and Densley, 2017: 44). The entity usually hires someone or a company that renders reputation management services (referred to as a Reputation Manager) to influence how the entity is viewed online. As these artists interact and communicate with society through social media platforms, they also make use of Online Reputation Management (ORM) services to assist them in achieving their set objectives through these platforms, by ensuring that they post images that are consistent, of good quality in terms of high definition, but also that each post communicates non-ambiguity in how these artists choose to represent themselves. In the context of social media, it is a process that involves tracking and monitoring of information of the brand on social media for improving its brand standing. As ORM plays a critical role in the social media space for artists, it is imperative that it also forms part of the discussions within the context of this dissertation.