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Who Is Your Favorite Social Media Star?
By CAROLINE CROSSON GILPIN NOV. 29, 2017
Fiona the hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo. CreditAndrew Spear for The New York Times
Have you heard about Fiona, the baby hippo born prematurely at the Cincinnati Zoo?
Watch the short video below, of Fiona and her mom playing together. How and why do you think she has become a beloved media star?
Baby Hippo Fiona and Mom Bibi Playing - Cincinnati Zoo Video by The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
In “Hooray for Fiona the Hippo, Our Bundle of Social-Media Joy,” Rachel Syme writes:
Fionamania has swept the country. Videos of her twirling around in the water, Rubenesque and graceful, rack up millions of views online. She photo-bombed a local couple’s engagement photo, and it wound up on “The Tonight Show.” The popular Cincinnati ice cream purveyor Greater’s made a “Chunky Chunky Hippo” flavor over the summer — a toffee base with salted peanuts and caramel truffles — that sold out at the zoo every day it was available. A local T-shirt company, Cincy Shirts, screen-printed a small batch of tees with the words “Feeling Hip” along with a cartoon rendering of Fiona in February, and has since shipped 30,000 Fiona-branded products (including tees, stickers, magnets and now Christmas sweaters featuring Fiona in a Santa hat) all over the world.
Fiona starred in her own 7-episode reality show sponsored by Facebook. The zoo’s director, Thane Maynard, sold a children’s book called “Saving Fiona: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Baby Hippo” to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, scheduled for the spring of 2018, with proceeds benefiting the animal’s care. The Cincinnati Reds are planning to have an official “Fiona Day” at the ballpark next summer, complete with commemorative hippopotamus bobbleheads. Twitter fans have become obsessed with Fiona’s flatulence. She has become America’s Large Adult Daughter, its triumphant baby queen, its reigning diva with the skin texture of a wet avocado.
Being at the center of a 24/7 hype machine for a 500-pound (and growing) starlet can be exhausting, and Ms. Curley got her tattoo as a way to commemorate the intensity of the past year. “I didn’t think any experience would ever top this experience,” she said. “I’m never going to regret getting it.”
“We think this is just Michelle’s way of one-upping her groupie status,” said Chad Yelton, the zoo’s vice president of marketing. “She has all the merch, the tumblers, the calendar. If there’s something with Fiona’s face on it, she has to have it first.”
When Fiona was born, no one expected her to survive. Bibi, her lumbering, obstinate mother (“Fiona gets all of her diva tendencies from her mom,” said Christina Gorsuch, the curator for African mammals) gave birth six weeks early, and the baby weighed only 29 pounds. Most viable hippos weigh between 55 and 120 pounds at birth; premature infants rarely pull through. “In the first six weeks, there was at least once a week when we were sure she was going to die,” said Ms. Gorsuch, who was wearing a pair of hippo-shaped stud earrings in her office next to the antelope pen. “I kept telling the keepers to call me in the middle of the night when the inevitable happens.”
She was kept in the bestial equivalent of a newborn I.C.U., with round-the-clock care that included visits from local nurses from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who located her tiny veins for an IV during a nasty bout of dehydration. Scientists at the zoo milked a hippo for the first time — “we had no idea what was in hippo milk before now,” Ms. Gorsuch said — so that they could recreate the formula for Fiona’s bottles. Every day, between January and May 15, when Fiona finally was able to promenade around the hippo tank for the public, seemed to bring a new health crisis. All of this was documented on social media for the world to see.
Overnight, Fiona became a symbol of resilience and positivity. Buzzfeed ran listicles of her bravest moments, calling her a “sassy, unbothered, unproblematic queen.” NPR ran a national report on her swelling celebrity status. One website called her “The Only Good Thing Left in This World.”
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:
— Who is your favorite social media star, and why?
— Have you seen any Fionamania memorabilia or news? If so, what did you see, and where?
— Now that you know more about Fiona, can you understand why she is a celebrity media darling? Why or why not?
— What other examples can you think of where someone — or something — drew fame and followers? Why did they become famous?
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ReplyDeleteMy favorite social media star is now Fiona from the Cincinnati Zoo. She is my favorite because after reading the article, Fiona is really funny. Some of the things she did was “she photobombed a couple's engagement photo”,” she stars in a 7 episode reality show”, she has a book written about her,” the Cincinnati Reds are going to have a Fiona day next summer”, she even has her own bobblehead. Fiona also shocked the world. No one expected her to survive she was born 6 weeks early and weighs only 29 pounds. The average size for a baby hippo is between 55-120. There one time a week they were positive Fiona was going to die.
ReplyDeleteNo I did not see anything about Fiona on the news. I wish I did because I would have looked her up and watched some of the funny videos. I also would have watched how they saved her life.
Yes, now that I know more about Fiona I see why she is a social media star. She is probably one of the funniest animals around the world. She stars in a movie, she photobombs pictures. The Reds are going to have a whole day dedicated to Fiona next summer. Not only did she become famous for being funny but on how she survived. She was expected to die a week after her birth but she survived. She was born 6 weeks early and was at least 50 pounds underweight.
Yes, I have heard about other animals that became famous. One animal is a gorilla named Harambe. He grew fame by a little kid walking into his cage and the gorilla was playing with the kid. And he was trying to protect the kid. But everyone thought the gorilla was trying to hurt the kid. So one of the zookeepers had to kill him. In my opinion they shouldn't of killed Harambe because he wasn't doing anything wrong he was just playing with kid and trying to protect the kid. Now people around the world know about Harambe. And something strange is Harambe came from the same zoo as Fiona. The are from the Cincinnati Zoo.
I like that use of harambe, and good use of words
DeleteMy favorite social media star would have to be Markiplier. When I first saw a video by Markiplier, I think it was before Five Nights at Freddy’s was popular. I don’t remember the exact video it was, but I do know that the video made me laugh, and have a love for Let’s Plays. Markiplier was one of the first people on YouTube that I’ve watched, and I’ve been watching his videos since around 8 million subscribers or more, around when he reacted to the 8 million fans video. I’ve been watching his videos for over 3 years. Markiplier is an amazing person, donating to charity, being supportive to his fans and giving each and every one of them a big thanks for being such amazing people. I remember a lot of quotes from him, before his rise to fame and after, Markiplier is one of my favorite stars.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t seen any news about Fiona on the news, or any social media. I understand she’s famous because she’s one in a million. She was born premature and lived, even having videos of herself. She is an adorable hippo, surely popular among animal lovers.
Another person that rose to fame would be Jacksepticeye, sort of like Markiplier, but with his own thunderous personality. One minute he can be quiet as a mouse, then as loud as thunder. When I first saw a video from Jacksepticeye, it was after I found Markiplier. I also forget this video, but Jack’s personality, and his quote, got me to love his channel. Another person I’ve found by their videos would be the Game Grumps. Markiplier sometimes brings them up in his videos, and when I first watched one of their videos I couldn’t stop laughing. Vanossgaming and his friends also rose to fame by having their hilarious funny moment videos. The first video I’ve seen by him was the “Dragon Ball Z Puppet Show Gmod” video. That had me in tears from how funny it was when I first saw it. And we all can’t forget the most famous of them all, Pewdiepie. He’s pretty funny as well. He’s one of the most famous people, having over 50 million subscribers, having more subscribers than YouTube themself. Pewdiepie helped Jacksepticeye gain followers, as he shouted out his channel in one of his videos. One last thing that is famous that I love is Eddsworld. A webseries, turning into an animated series, started in 2001, still going on today, is known for the maker, Edd Gould, who died back in 2012 due to losing a battle with cancer. I’ve known this series for about a year thanks to one of my friends, but when I found the news about Edd, it was really sad. The series was really good, and got me into animation. I follow their account on Deviantart, as the owner, Matt, continues to post comics in Edd’s honor, as he’s the only one remaining on the team as the others left.
I don't know who Markipilier is but he sounds like a funny dude. He also sounds like he's nice because he donates to charity and thanks all of his fans. And I haven't seen anything about Fiona on the news or social media either. I heard about Pewdipie that he has like 60 million subscribers on YouTube but I haven't seen any of his videos. I also agree with Sarah because that is sad that one of you favorite social media shows the make died due to cancer.
DeleteMy favorite Social media star is Brian Bormes he is a marine who owns a farm and some really cool cars and trucks. He has a LS swapped 79’ Chevy Camaro, a 24 valve cummins swapped 77’ Ford F250 highboy, and a 79 Ford Bronco with a 24 valve cummins. He also has a 2017 Dodge 3500 Quad cab cummins that is his daily. He’s the only “ social media star” I could think of and I like what he does. He basically has done what I want to do with my life. Go into the marines do my four years then get my free college. Go to college for Mechanical engineering do that for a few years make some money then move down south and open up a mechanic shop. Brian Bormes did that except for the opening his own mechanic shop. I wanna build up old cars and trucks like that mess around with them then sell them. That’s basically what he does for fun and if he really likes them he keeps them. A lot of people think what he does is pretty cool and would like to do it or can’t so they follow him. That’s how he became famous, for just doing what he loves and putting it out there on social media.I have never seen anything about Fiona until this article just now. Now that I know more about her I understand why she is a social media star. She is special and does cool tricks and gets a lot of attention so people see her a lot and she became popular. Another person who grew fame from followers is Dwayne Johnson. He wasn’t that big until he became the biggest man on social media. He got all his fame and followers just from being in movies and bodybuilding. He has something like a couple million followers on instagram and is a huge celebrity.
ReplyDeleteThis was very good. I understood everything u said good job
DeleteMy favorite social media star is “Bad bunny” because i love his music it just gets me in a good mood and his words are relatable even if it's not in english (lol) i can understand he's been a big phenomenon in the latino community especially his collaborations with other hispanic/latino artists like (Becky G ,karol G ,ozuna ,j balvin,noriel… and many more) .
ReplyDeleteI have never seen news on Fiona Mania i usually don't use many social media platforms because it helps with not having an image that u wish for to be in your feed every morning and people who don't really care follow you and follower count and amount of friends ans status is just one thing i don't care about not being that way relieves stress and anxiety personally. And it just takes up time to be honest
Now that i have read about fiona i see now why she is such a big topic on various social media platforms quote “celebrity media darling” her story is truly amazing and her cuteness can win hearts threw a screen
I remember when danielle bregoli the “cash me outside” girl was just starting to get recognized after months of her already being on the dr.phil show and she became famous for her famous but kinda disrespectful quote “cash me outside, how bout dat “ also her choice of manicure and red hair and falsies give a type of image of the best friend your parents dont want u to have(lol) in conclusion to all of this it is a miracle and happy thought that this hippo was born premature and after being one of the best media phenomenons of the time being but just as all trends
And viral video and stories usually die down or end . and i hope that the hippo live a happy and healthy animal life time.and i still stand by my conclusion of not useing social media to keep my happieness just like the “celebrity media star”.
I like Bad bunny too and I agree that his music gets her in a good mood because that happens to me too
DeleteWhy do I believe that she has become a huge media star. Maybe just because people literally go crazy when stuff like this happens. Or maybe i could just be completely wrong and maybe people are think its cool that they get to see what a premature hippo looks like. Or it could be both for all i know. Um i don't really have a favorite social media star, I mean on instagram i follow some pretty famous accounts, but i would never say to famous i mean there pretty well known but not to famous. No actually this is my first time hearing about his premature baby hippo so it's kinda weird in a way i didn't know this happened to creatures like them then again i also didn't know hippos were mammals. Now that i have read more about her yes i can understand why actually. In the reading it says that she has become like a beacon of hope and that would make a lot of sense to me because it says she wasn't supposed to live past a certain amount of weeks now she is in her pen frolcking around and enjoying life I mean it also doesn't surprise me that people go crazy over this, at some points i feel like certain people just want to be apart of a crowd. Um i think many famous musicians become popular like that. I mean i hate to use him as an example but look at justin bieber he put himself out there and and now he's one of the most known people out there. Or even like bands like nirvana they were discovered by someone and they just kept growing. Almost every body is discovered and just keep growing and some don't but at this point it's just luck of the draw. I mean you can only hope for the best at this point more and more untalented people being discovered and its not that good due to there awful music but that's my opinion.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say who my real favorite social media star is, but I can break it down to two people. One of them is an account on instagram by the name of _Quantum_Memes_. He’s slowly climbing up within the ranks of becoming a decently sized meme account nearing One Thousand followers, and he collaborated with some close friends as well. My second more liked would have to be another account on Instagram called Spongebo_ob. He post nothing but spongebob memes that are actually above average quality. A decently sized account like his is widely loved by those who follow him. He’s one of the few followed by _Quantum_Memes_ and both are said to attend Central Regional High School. If you do ever come across a day to follow either one however, I’d highly recommend choosing wisely as they’re both vastly different with content. Besides advertising their accounts I can’t say that I have seen any Fiona memorabilia. In fact I haven't even heard of Fiona until now. After reading this I think I started to understand how she became a star, but I believe that it would be classified as a mid-way important celebrity as some have gained more popularity than she would have. Lastly I’d like to answer that there's thousands and millions more that had drew fame either in a negative or positive way. I suppose you can use many celebrities as examples. Such as Will Smith, Kevin James, both who gained popularity by having participation in songs, shows, movies, etcetera, or you could use other popular figures like Presidents who would gain fame for what they do or had done in the past. This doesn’t just have to relate to just known people either, the average joe can also pass qualifications to gain even just a few following people, again based on what they do, have done, or how they act. Some can say that it’s easy to become popular, while others may have the hardest time of their life, but in my opinion I’ll say that it depends on what you do, and how long you do it for.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite social media star is Bob marley. Even though he past away you can never forget him. He's super chill for all his music and he speaks about all the world and there problems. My mom showed me his music and i usually don't like what she shows me but i really liked him so we share the love of his music. He's really chill to just jam to. Thousands of people still listen to his music because he's that much of a kind. Now thats fame.
ReplyDeleteI have never herd of Fiona from the zoo. But after reading this article I realize she is something special. She Is different than all the other hippos. In my opinion I think hippos are so cute. But now this is my favorite hippo now because of how special she is. This hippy is premature and still lived. To me that is so cool because I am an animal lover and it's just amazing that this had happened. And it's so supper cool that she stars in movies and are in pictures because you really don't see that anywhere else when u look at hippos. Hippos are cute and all but they don't do much. They usually just sit there and eat. But not Fiona, she is doing all sorts of things that hippos don't usually do. And I'm kinda jealous of this hippo because how can a hippo be for know thank us as people. That's just crazy to me.
I do know something that got famous all over social media. I forget the name but it's the cutest little dog ever and it wears a shirt and all the fur sticks out of the shirt and it's just so cute. The dog has like a million followers on instagram like that's crazy how a dog can have more followers than me but whatever lol. But I know why the dog is famous. THE DOG IS SO CUTE like it's literally like a stuffed animals that YU just wanna cuddle all the time.
I really didn’t know who bob Marley is untill I read your article. I only knew that he was jamacin and a singer. Know Ik what his songs are about.
DeleteWho is my favorite social media star?
ReplyDeleteI actually have a few favorite social media stars but my favorite 2 would be “Wolftyla” and “AmourJayda” reasons being is because they’re both inspirational and positive women. They’re very motivated. And doing big things with their lives. And they aren’t letting anyone hold them back from doing what they know is right. Which is beautiful I admire that so much. Because it has a big impact on me and helps encourage me to do what’s right and follow my dreams and career.
0. No I haven’t seen any Fionamania memorabilia news.
I have a lot of favorite social media stars but my new favorite one is Fiona because she was a good story about her life and she is so cute and another reason is because I love baby hippos. One day when I was watching of animals on Youtube I was a video of Fiona, the video was only about when someone was washing FIona. Now that I know more about Fiona I understand why she is a celebrity media darling because she was born premature and she survived.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Fiona until i was introduced to her in this article.I like her now because she is very funny and playful.She is also very kind and not shy at all.She loves people so much and is a very happy hippo but i also feel bad because she had a rough life.
ReplyDeleteYes, now that I know more about Fiona I see why she is a social media star. She is probably one of the funniest animals around the world. She stars in a movie, she photobombs pictures. The Reds are going to have a whole day dedicated to Fiona next summer. Not only did she become famous for being funny but on how she survived. She was expected to die a week after her birth but she survived. She was born 6 weeks early and was at least 50 pounds underweight.
Yes, I have heard about other animals that became famous. One animal is a gorilla named Harambe. He grew fame by a little kid walking into his cage and the gorilla was playing with the kid. And he was trying to protect the kid. But everyone thought the gorilla was trying to hurt the kid. So one of the zookeepers had to kill him. In my opinion they shouldn't of killed Harambe because he wasn't doing anything wrong he was just playing with kid and trying to protect the kid. Now people around the world know about Harambe. And something strange is Harambe came from the same zoo as Fiona. The are from the Cincinnati Zoo.