The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content

Despite an increasing information overflow in the era of digital communication, influencers manage to draw the attention of their followers with an authentic and casual appearance. Reaching large audiences on social media, they can be considered as digital opinion leaders. In the past, they predomin...

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Autores principales:	Magdalena Riedl, Carsten Schwemmer, Sandra Ziewiecki, Lisa M. Ross
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	influencer social media marketing opinion leader political communication sustainability Communication. Mass media P87-96
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/726459123d5f464fb1193f2f2d39a3a2
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:726459123d5f464fb1193f2f2d39a3a2
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:726459123d5f464fb1193f2f2d39a3a22021-12-03T10:05:01ZThe Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content2297-900X10.3389/fcomm.2021.752656https://doaj.org/article/726459123d5f464fb1193f2f2d39a3a22021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2021.752656/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2297-900XDespite an increasing information overflow in the era of digital communication, influencers manage to draw the attention of their followers with an authentic and casual appearance. Reaching large audiences on social media, they can be considered as digital opinion leaders. In the past, they predominantly appeared as experts for topics like fashion, sports, or gaming and used their status to cooperate with brands for marketing purposes. However, since recently influencers also turn towards more meaningful and political content. In this article, we share our perspective on the rise of political influencers using examples of sustainability and related topics covered on Instagram. By applying a qualitative observational approach, we illustrate how influencers make political communication look easy, while at the same time seamlessly integrating product promotions in their social media feeds. In this context, we discuss positive aspects of political influencers like contributions to education and political engagement, but also negative aspects such as the potential amplification of radical political ideology or conspiracy theories. We conclude by highlighting political influencers as an important research topic for conceptual and empirical studies in the future.Magdalena RiedlCarsten SchwemmerCarsten SchwemmerSandra ZiewieckiLisa M. RossFrontiers Media S.A.articleinfluencersocial mediamarketingopinion leaderpolitical communicationsustainabilityCommunication. Mass mediaP87-96ENFrontiers in Communication, Vol 6 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	influencer social media marketing opinion leader political communication sustainability Communication. Mass media P87-96
spellingShingle	influencer social media marketing opinion leader political communication sustainability Communication. Mass media P87-96 Magdalena Riedl Carsten Schwemmer Carsten Schwemmer Sandra Ziewiecki Lisa M. Ross The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content
description	Despite an increasing information overflow in the era of digital communication, influencers manage to draw the attention of their followers with an authentic and casual appearance. Reaching large audiences on social media, they can be considered as digital opinion leaders. In the past, they predominantly appeared as experts for topics like fashion, sports, or gaming and used their status to cooperate with brands for marketing purposes. However, since recently influencers also turn towards more meaningful and political content. In this article, we share our perspective on the rise of political influencers using examples of sustainability and related topics covered on Instagram. By applying a qualitative observational approach, we illustrate how influencers make political communication look easy, while at the same time seamlessly integrating product promotions in their social media feeds. In this context, we discuss positive aspects of political influencers like contributions to education and political engagement, but also negative aspects such as the potential amplification of radical political ideology or conspiracy theories. We conclude by highlighting political influencers as an important research topic for conceptual and empirical studies in the future.
format	article
author	Magdalena Riedl Carsten Schwemmer Carsten Schwemmer Sandra Ziewiecki Lisa M. Ross
author_facet	Magdalena Riedl Carsten Schwemmer Carsten Schwemmer Sandra Ziewiecki Lisa M. Ross
author_sort	Magdalena Riedl
title	The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content
title_short	The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content
title_full	The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content
title_fullStr	The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content
title_full_unstemmed	The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content
title_sort	rise of political influencers— perspectives on a trend towards meaningful content
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/726459123d5f464fb1193f2f2d39a3a2
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The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content

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