Your idols love decentralisation!

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The dynamic changes of the media and it’s decentralisation has immensely facilitated audience’s ability to interact. Audiences roles have become altered and brought about new types of participation. Specifically, famous artists have taken advantage of this throughout their practices.

Rapper, Nicki Minaj heavily relies on this decentralisation in order to connect, relate and build a relationship with her fanbase, the ‘Barbz’. This is evident throughout her social media posts asking for fans opinions, sharing fan made memes and work, conversing online with fans and various other interactions. A testament to this decentralised approach is Minaj’s choice to use fan made cover art for her song ‘Barbie Drip’.

The collaborative nature of Minaj’s work allows fans to be active participants within her projects. Minaj and her team try to limit the gatekeeping aspect of their process by offering open lines of communication between parties (evident through Twitter and Instagram interactions).

They use this many to many, dialogue to facilitate Minaj’s approachability, like-ability and longevity as an artist. Furthermore, by promoting the ‘Barbz’ to be active consumers by producing and contributing their own creations Minaj benefits from the increased content in relation to her (this being as it boosts her reach and popularity).

Although the inability to control all forms of communication can be negative in terms of bad press, the creation of new, beneficial media such as; fan accounts, memes, fan art, edits, reviews, tour and merchandise suggestions etc. outweighs this affect.

LINKS: 

Twitter: simplysez

Instagram: sarahcreecy

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