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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3078-944X

Abstract

Social media platforms increasingly operate as infrastructures of visibility, shaping the conditions under which cultural content is produced, circulated, and recognised (van Dijck et al.; Nieborg and Poell). This article examines Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) and The Life of a Showgirl as two distinct visibility configurations emerging from the affordances and algorithmic logics of TikTok and Instagram. Drawing on platform studies (Abidin), celebrity theory (Dyer; Marshall; Marwick), and participatory culture and produsage (Jenkins; Bruns), the study employs a QCA-inspired configurational approach (Ragin) to analyse how clusters of affective cues, aesthetic strategies, parasocial signals, and circulation patterns generate contrasting visibility regimes.

The analysis demonstrates that Red (Taylor’s Version) produces an intimacy-oriented configuration structured by nostalgia, interpretive labour, and personalised TikTok storytelling, foregrounding fan-driven amplification. In contrast, The Life of a Showgirl reflects a spectacle-oriented configuration marked by theatrical aesthetics, high-production micro-spectacles, and choreographed parasocial micro-events calibrated for cross-platform circulation. These configurations are activated through distinct conjunctural mechanisms that reveal how platforms co-produce – not merely distribute – celebrity visibility.

The article advances “visibility configurations” as a conceptual framework for understanding platform-mediated celebrity, showing how artists strategically navigate aesthetic, affective, and algorithmic forces within the contemporary attention economy. The findings contribute to debates on digital celebrity, participatory fandom, and platformised cultural production.

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