Researching Media Figures As Constructions of Digital Archives

This study explores methods for investigating media figures whose public personas are primarily perceived and interpreted through their identity traits as presented in the digital media sphere. With the rapid development of digital and social media technologies, well-known figures have emerged whose fame originates mostly from the Internet. These individuals, often referred to as Internet celebrities or influencers, have become prominent due to their online presence.

In this study, I propose an operational definition of a media figure: a constructed persona whose identity traits, accumulated and disseminated across digital media platforms, are selectively appraised by the anonymous collective at a specific point in time. This definition is based on the idea that the Internet, as a field for ethnographic research, necessitates an archival approach (Kozinets 2010, 104-105). Internet users, through their everyday practices, already engage in forms of archival studies, as they continually construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct the personas of media figures (Kim 2024, 68).

This study introduces a Netnographic approach to investigating the trajectories of media figures' persona (re)construction by combining traditional digital ethnographic methods with visual archival techniques, including the analysis of gestures (Kim 2022, 5-6). Several case studies, including foreign figures who have either succeeded or failed in the Korean-centric media sphere, as well as digital vigilantes who position themselves as extralegal agents of justice, will be examined through this archival lens.