Abstract
This article presents insights into the commodification that constructs identity. The researcher focuses on mothers who have become micro-celebrities on social media. While maternal identity was previously confined to private or domestic spaces, mothers now appear as content creators. This reflects a process of commodification that transforms maternal experiences into commercial value. The commodification process of mothers involves identity reconstruction that integrates maternal values with the business dynamics of the digital era. The resulting content not only builds emotional closeness with the audience but also shapes a new paradigm in the social representation of mothers. Using a qualitative approach, this study explores how social media commodification shapes the dynamics of cultural norms, national identity, and traditional values. The result reveals that motherhood identity has undergone negotiation among mothers, the social environment, and the social media market to reach a mutually beneficial meeting point. The results also open the door to critical discussion of the impact of technology on the construction of identity and traditional values. It also provides in-depth insights into identity shifts amidst the flow of digitalization. Thus, this article contributes to an interdisciplinary understanding of the commodification and identity of mothers in social media spaces.
References
Abidin, C. (2016). Please Subscribe! Influencers, Social Media, and the Commodification of Everyday Life. Ph. D Thesis.
Abidin, C. (2017). #familygoals: Family Influencers, Calibrated Amateurism, and Justifying Young Digital Labor. Social Media + Society, 3(2), 2056305117707191. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117707191
Abidin, C., & Brown, M. L. (2018). Introduction. Microcelebrity Around the Globe, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-749-820181001
Adorno, T. W., & Horkheimer, M. (2007). The culture industry: Enlightenment as mass deception. Stardom and Celebrity: A Reader, 1944, 34–43. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446269534.n4
Archer, C. (2019a). How influencer ‘mumpreneur’ bloggers and ‘everyday’ mums frame presenting their children online. Media International Australia, 170(1), 47–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X19828365
Archer, C. (2019b). Social media influencers, post-feminism and neoliberalism: How mum bloggers’ ‘playbour’ is reshaping public relations. Public Relations Inquiry, 8(2), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X19846530
Athique, A. (2020). Integrated commodities in the digital economy. Media, Culture and Society, 42(4), 554–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719861815
Barker, C. (2012). The SAGE Dictionary of Cultural Studies. In The SAGE Dictionary of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221280
Baudrillard, J. (1999). Simulacra and simulation (Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Bennett, J. M. (2015). Identity Negotiation Theory. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence, June. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483346267.n143
Bergen, M. (2022). Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination. Viking.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1991). The Social of Construction Reality.
Blade, S. (2023a). Top 250 YouTubers in Indonesia Sorted by Subscribers. Social Blade.
Blade, S. (2023b). Top 250 YouTubers in Indonesia Sorted by Video Views. Social Blade.
Capdevila, R., Dann, C., Lazard, L., Roper, S., & Locke, A. (2022). #mothersday: Constructions of motherhood and femininity in social media posts. Feminism and Psychology, 32(3), 336–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593535221107832
Caplan, R., & Gillespie, T. (2020). Tiered governance and demonetization: The Shifting terms of labor and compensation in the platform economy. Social Media + Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120936636
Caraway, B. (2011). Audience labor in the new media environment : A Marxian revisiting of the audience commodity. Media Culture & Society, 33(5), 693–708.
Chae, J. (2015). “Am I a Better Mother Than You?” Communication Research, 42(4), 503–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650214534969
Chusna, A. (2021). Persona in Social Media: A Case Study on Baim Paula Youtube Channel. Journal of Language and Literature, 21(2), 242–251. https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v21i2.3009
Cleaf, K. Van. (2015). Of Woman Born to Mommy Blogged: The Journey from the Personal as Political to the Personal as Commodity. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 43(3–4), 247–264. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.2015.0064
Devos, S., Eggermont, S., & Vandenbosch, L. (2022). Instagram Influencers as Superwomen: Influencers’ Lifestyle Presentations Observed Through Framing Analysis. Media and Communication, 10(1), 173–184. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4717
Febriyanti, S. N. (2021). The Exploitation of Audience As Digital Labour in Indonesian Youtube Platform. Profetik: Jurnal Komunikasi, 14(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.14421/pjk.v14i1.1876
Fuchs, C. (2012a). Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Econoomy and Critical Theory. Prolegomena to a Digital Labour Theory of Value. 10(2), 692–740.
Fuchs, C. (2012b). Google capitalism. TripleC, 10(1), 42–48. https://doi.org/10.31269/vol10iss1pp42-48
Fuchs, C. (2019). Rereading Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism. Pluto Press.
Fuchs, C. (2020). Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory. University of Westminster Press.
Fuchs, C., & Mosco, V. (2016). Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism. Brill.
Germic, E. R., Eckert, S., & Vultee, F. (2021). The Impact of Instagram Mommy Blogger Content on the Perceived Self-Efficacy of Mothers. Social Media and Society, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211041649
Gibson, C. L. (2019). Enacting Motherhood Online: How Facebook and Mommy Blogs Reinforce White Ideologies of the New Momism. Feminist Encounters, 3(1–2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/5912
Goffman, E. (1956). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. In University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre. University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre. https://doi.org/10.2307/2089106
Gudykunst, W. B. (2003). Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.
Hatfield, E. F. (2018). (Not) getting paid to do what you love: Gender, social media, and aspirational work. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 35(3), 315–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2018.1433310
Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. Yale University Press.
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2018). The Cultural Industries (4th ed.). SAGE Publication.
Hou, M. (2019). Social media celebrity and the institutionalization of YouTube. Convergence, 25(3), 534–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517750368
Hudders, L., De Jans, S., & De Veirman, M. (2021). The commercialization of social media stars: a literature review and conceptual framework on the strategic use of social media influencers. International Journal of Advertising, 40(3), 327–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2020.1836925
Jacobson, J. (2013). Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. Canadian Journal of Communication, 38(4), 673–676. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2013v38n4a2699
Jin, S. V., Muqaddam, A., & Ryu, E. (2019). Instafamous and social media influencer marketing. Marketing Intelligence and Planning. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-09-2018-0375
Jorge, A., Garcez, B., Janiques de Carvalho, B., & Coelho, A. M. (2023). Parenting on Celebrities’ and Influencers’ Social Media: Revamping Traditional Gender Portrayals. Journalism and Media, 4(1), 105–117. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia4010008
Jorge, A., Marôpo, L., Coelho, A. M., & Novello, L. (2022). Mummy influencers and professional sharenting. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25(1), 166–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494211004593
Kamaruddin, S. A., Adam, A., Gunawan, A., & Chakti, R. (2024). Komodifikasi Media Sosial Dalam Perspektif Teori Jean Baudrillard ( Studi Kasus Tiktok Indonesia ). 5(1), 177–180. https://doi.org/10.35965/bje.v5i1.5462
Krzyżanowska, N. (2020). The commodification of motherhood: normalisation of consumerism in mediated discourse on mothering. Social Semiotics, 30(4), 563–590. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2020.1762986
Mahameruaji, J. N., Puspitasari, L., Rosfiantika, E., & Rahmawan, D. (2018). Bisnis Vlogging dalam Industri Media Digital di Indonesia. Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI, 15(1), 61–74. https://doi.org/10.24002/jik.v15i1.1007
Marx, K. (1904). A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (2010).pdf (p. 314).
Mosco, V. (2009). The Political Economy of Communication. In The Political Economy of Communication. SAGE Publication. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446279946.n5
Mosco, V. (2018). A Critical Perspective on the Post-Internet World. Javnost, 25(1–2), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2018.1418976
Murdock, G. (2011). Political Economies as Moral Economies: Commodities, Gifts and Public Goods. Blacwell Publisihing.
Muslikhin, M., Mulyana, D., Hidayat, D. R., & Utari, P. (2021). The commodification, spatialization and structuration of social media in the indonesian cyber media news. Media and Communication, 9(2), 110–118. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i2.3752
Nafsa, A. T., & Zulhazmi, A. Z. (2022). Children ’ s Commodification on Baim Paula ’ s YouTube Channel. 6(2), 159–169. https://doi.org/10.30762/mediakita.v6i2.316
Nieborg, D. B., & Poell, T. (2018). The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New Media and Society, 20(11), 4275–4292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818769694
Noviasri, R., & Andari, T. W. (2017). VLOG CELEBRITIES : COMMODIFICATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF. Sustainability, Inter-and Trans-Discipline, Culture towards Creative Economy, 2, 148–154.
Orton-Johnson, K. (2017). Mummy blogs and representations of motherhood: “Bad mummies” and their readers. Social Media and Society, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117707186
Rahmawati, M. A., Purwanto, E., Widiyaniarti, T., & Wandiah, K. P. (2024). Komunikasi Antar Budaya di Era Digital. 2(10), 307–313.
Raun, T. (2018). Capitalizing intimacy: New subcultural forms of micro-celebrity strategies and affective labour on YouTube. Convergence, 24(1), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517736983
Rosyidah, F. N., & Nurwati, N. (2019). Gender dan Stereotipe: Konstruksi Realitas dalam Media Sosial Instagram. Share : Social Work Journal, 9(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.24198/share.v9i1.19691
Sadowski, J. (2019). When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and extraction. Big Data and Society, 6(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718820549
Sandel, M. J. (2013). What Money Can’t Buy The Moral Limits of Markets. Farrar, Straur, Giroux.
Senft, T. M. (2008). Camgirls: Celebrity and community in the age of social networks. In Transformative Works and Cultures (Vol. 3). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0120
Senft, T. M. (2013). Microcelebrity and the Branded Self. A Companion to New Media Dynamics, 346–354. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118321607.ch22
Suryakusuma, J. I. (2011). State Ibuism: The social construction of womanhood in New Order Indonesia. Komunitas Bambu.
Syafuddin, K. (2020). Komodifikasi Keluarga dalam Dunia Virtual untuk Peningkatan Ekonomi di Era Revolusi Industri 4.0. PANCANAKA Jurnal Kependudukan, Keluarga, Dan Sumber Daya Manusia, 1(1), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.37269/pancanaka.v1i1.10
Takševa, T. (2012). The Commercialization of Motherhood and Mothering in the Context of Globalization. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 3(1).
Ting-Toomey, S. (1999). Communicating Across Cultures by Stella Ting-Toomey PhD (z-lib.org).pdf.
Ting‐Toomey, S. (2017). Identity Negotiation Theory. In The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0039
Ting‐Toomey, S., & Chung, L. C. (2012). Understanding Intercultural Communication (Second). Oxford University Press.
Veissi, I. (2017). Influencer Marketing on Instagram. University of Twente.
Wittel, A. (2013). Counter-commodification: The economy of contribution in the digital commons. Culture and Organization, 19(4), 314–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2013.827422

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Febiana Christanti

