Capturing Trends and Identifying the Emerging Cool: A Study of Indian Bollywood Celebs on Twitter

FALGUNI VASAVADA, SANTOSH K. PATRA, PALAK GADHIYA & KRISHNA MISHRA
MICA—The School of Ideas, Ahmedabad, India

People actively participating on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs are questioning the age old logic of boundaries and space. Virtual networks like twitter have given space which not only explores individual self but also connects to a mass phenomenon emerging through thought leaders, celebrities or ‘trend setters’. This study is an attempt to take the argument further and identify the emerging ‘trend’ in India through the celeb-tweets. To verify the argument empirically tweets of ten celebrities on twitter from Bollywood which include actors, choreographers, musicians, and producers were collected over a period of one month and tweet analysis was done by adopting hermeneutics as the method of data analysis. Appropriate codes were considered to address the major question of the paper on ‘social trends’ and the notion of ‘being cool’ to validate the question raised in the paper.

Keywords: Trend, cool, Twitter, celebrity, Bollywood, new media, space.

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Dr. Falguni Vasavada is an associate professor and chair, online programs, marketing area at MICA.
Dr. Santosh K. Patra is a new media scholar, presently working as an assistant professor and head media area, MICA.
Palak Gadhiya is a research associate in the area of marketing at MICA.
Krishna Mishra is a research assistant in the area of media at MICA