Politische Social-Media-Influencer als Meinungsführer?

Bause, Halina

doi:10.1007/s11616-021-00666-z

Cited by 36 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…In today's hybrid media system, different types of media co-exist and form a system that evolves through "interactions among older and newer media" (Chadwick, 2017, p. xi). On social media platforms in particular, professional journalism is one source among many; alternative actors such as political social media influencers (Bause, 2021) have become increasingly important in the context of news consumption. These "new journalistic actors" (Banjac & Hanusch, 2020, p. 2) are doing the work of redefining traditional journalism (Loosen, 2015).…”

Section: Transformations and Challenges In Today's Hybrid Media Envir...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Types of Information Orientation and Information Levels Among Young and Old News Audiences

Wunderlich

Hölig²

2022

MaC

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Studies on audiences’ information behavior paint a mixed picture of young and old people’s interests, their involvement with news and information, and the effects news consumption has on their learning. By adapting Giddens’s structuration approach, this study aims to assess audience behavior and its relationship with journalism by comparing the use behavior and attitudes of three age groups—adolescents, young adults, and adults—as characterized by distinct media socialization and use patterns. We identify types of information orientation—that is, a typology of behavior and attitudes towards news and information—for the examination of news audiences. Based on a representative face-to-face survey (N = 1,508) with German adolescents (14–17 years old), young adults (18–24 years old), and adults (40–53 years old), we identify four types that can be characterized by a certain pattern of news-related attitudes, the use of sources, and their relevance to opinion formation, as well as the perceived information level of participants. We examine how these types of information orientation differ between and among the three age groups and explore their relationship with audiences’ socio-political knowledge. The findings show that not all young people are necessarily less interested and engaged with news and journalism than older people. Moreover, it is a combination of interest with the use and perceived relevance of journalistic sources that is relevant for positive effects on information levels.

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Section: Transformations and Challenges In Today's Hybrid Media Envir...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Types of Information Orientation and Information Levels Among Young and Old News Audiences

Wunderlich

Hölig²

2022

MaC

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“…Influencer marketing is considered as a "rapidly growing industry that attempts to promote products or increase brand awareness through content spread by social media users who are considered to be influential" (Carter 2016). Due to their huge online audiences, influencers are often considered as digital opinion leaders (Bause 2021;Soares, Recuero, and Zago 2018;Acharoui et al, 2020;Dubois and Gaffney 2014). Referring to the concept of a two-step flow of communication (Lazarsfeld et al, 1968) opinion leaders are characterized as people who interact with traditional mass media, deal with current issues, reprocess the information and pass them over to other members of their personal networks (Katz 1957, 61).…”

Section: Influencers As Authentic Opinion Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides the importance of influencers for affecting communication and the spread of information online, their actual impact on user attitudes or behavior is difficult to quantify. At the very least influencers are considered to be credible, authentic and trustworthy (Bause 2021;Duckwitz 2019;Schach 2018). Authenticity can be conceptualized as a form of worth (Strand 2014), and influencers manage to create authenticity as an important aspect of their capital mostly by appearing "real" to their followers.…”

Section: Influencers As Authentic Opinion Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it would not necessarily match our definition outlined above, which is more closely related to traditional social media influencers. Besides conceptual work on opinion leadership by Bause (2021), other available studies (Frühbrodt and Floren 2019;Nymoen 2021) appear to focus predominantly on normative and negative aspects of political influencers. By contrast, this article aims to highlight both positive as well as negative aspects of political influencers in conjunction with illustrating new trends in influencer marketing.…”

Section: Influencers As Authentic Opinion Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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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.

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“…Against the backdrop of this development, this study provides insights into the role of political social media influencers (PSMI), their content, and their motives in the context of elections. Considering the German federal election in September 2021, it explores how PSMI as self-created brands on social media produce and distribute political content on the election on different platforms for a dispersed audience (for the definition, see also Bause, 2021, p. 296).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Knowledge to Go: An Analysis of Selected Political Influencers and Their Formats in the Context of the 2021 German Federal Election

Sehl

Schützeneder

2023

Social Media + Society

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This study provides insights into the role of political social media influencers (PSMI) as relatively new actors in political communication. It examines their content and motives in the context of elections. Considering the German federal election in 2021, it uses content analysis of 20 PSMI offers with 301 pieces of content and a supplemental online survey to explore how PSMI communicated on various platforms/formats (Instagram posts/videos, podcast episodes, TikTok, YouTube) in the 2 months before the election. The findings show that the PSMI in this sample, who were all nominated for an award, provided (basic) political knowledge for a broad target audience without significant prior knowledge. In line with this, the findings further reveal that while the content of the PSMI overall was characterized by a high density of information, their density of opinion or self-presentation was comparatively low, with platform affordances influencing these characteristics. This corresponds to the motives stated by the PSMI in the supplemental online survey. While the findings for the PSMI in our sample are to some extent in line with role conceptions of journalists in Germany—the sample spans from professional journalists to influencers without any connection to journalism—they diverge in other respects from routines of the profession. The findings of our country-specific contribution allow for a more systemic understanding of PSMI, especially in the context of elections, by highlighting that they can add to information sources available by offering (basic) political education, especially for a young target audience on social media.

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Politische Social-Media-Influencer als Meinungsführer?

Cited by 36 publications

References 58 publications

Types of Information Orientation and Information Levels Among Young and Old News Audiences

Types of Information Orientation and Information Levels Among Young and Old News Audiences

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

Political Knowledge to Go: An Analysis of Selected Political Influencers and Their Formats in the Context of the 2021 German Federal Election

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