R6: Active environmentalist

Leonardo DiCaprio: Active Environmentalist

Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd, in the article “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter” focuses on how social media has had an impact towards celebrity culture. Nowadays, the new digital media has transformed the ways of interaction between celebrities and fans. Celebrities can actively interact with their fans through social media sites such as Twitter. “Twitter allows celebrity practitioners to create a sense of closeness and familiarity between themselves and their followers. Highly followed accounts vary in performed intimacy; while some mostly broadcast information about an upcoming tour or book, other write about personal subjects, post exclusive content, or chat about their daily lives” (Marwick and Boyd, 147). The celebrities now manage their audiences using Twitter which has an easy dialogic nature and a facility for conversation. Because of its interactive nature, fans find a stronger connection with their favorite celebrities. As a result, celebrities use Twitter as a space where they forcefully and clearly inform audiences about important ideas. To give an example, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the celebrities who uses Twitter to notify his followers about the environment issues. He has actively concerned of the environment. He has been an active supporter of many environmental organizations such as Global Green USA, World Wildlife Fund, etc. Importantly, he has actively promoted environmental awareness through his personal social media account, Twitter (@LeoDiCaprio). Most of his tweets are concerned about all areas of the environment issues. He tweets to encourage his followers to join him in his actions or to support the people whom he has met that works for a better environment. To DiCaprio, Twitter is an important connection space where he can insist and challenge his followers in protecting the planet Earth. Because he has much access to people (17.4M followers), environmental researchers believe that his followers will listen to him. Thus, those who care and have interest leave comments to support DiCaprio. In this case, an influencer has wisely used the social media platform. It has passed a positive movement which both the celebrity and fans come together for a better consequence. The way of using the social media platform depends on a purpose of a user. 

Works cited:

Marwick, Alice, and boyd, Danah. “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter.” Convergence May 2011 vol. 17 no. 2 139-158. http://www.academia.edu/755942/To_See_and_Be_Seen_Celebrity_Practice_on_Twitter. (viewed 4/23/2017).

DiCaprio, Leonardo (@LeoDiCaprio). “From my friend @Usher, experience #CHAINS at…” 19 Oct 2015. Tweet.

Oceana (@Oceana). “We must protect our oceans:…” 22 Apr 2017, 3:30 AM. Tweet.

DiCaprio, Leonardo (@LeoDiCaprio). “Thank you @BarackObama for all you’ve done to protect our planet…” 20 Jan 2017. Tweet.