Influencer Politics

At the Intersection of Personal, Political, and Promotional

Johanna Arnesson, Hanna Reinikainen

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111036151
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

Influencer Politics focuses on current discussions about the role and impact of social media influencers in the political sphere, and how the personal, political and promotional often converges in digital media. A key question is how core ideas of influencer culture – authenticity, intimacy, commercialism, and self-branding – shape the ways in which politics are expressed and understood in this context, as well as opens up space for new ways of connecting and interacting with the public. It also highlights the way that influencer culture itself is infused with politics, where issues of, for example, empowerment and exploitation are articulated and discussed in different ways. The book is the result of a common interest among researchers engaged in work on political aspects of influencer marketing and influencer culture from critical, cultural, and strategic perspectives, and offers a range of case studies devoted to both the promises and limitations of influencer politics.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Influencer politics: An introduction
• From beauty to ballots Contradictory discourses on political influencers in Swedish news and social media
• “Remember to vote!” How do people respond to social media influencers promoting political participation?
• The influencer political communicators dream of Seven theses on the ideal influencer in the political domain
• Election influencers on TikTok Strategic utilisation of the short video format during the 2022 election campaign in Sweden
• A human behind the politics? Personalisation and interactions in the comments sections of Swedish politicians’ YouTube channels
• Greenfluencers and environmental advocacy Sustainability representations and appeals to action in content by Scandinavian influencers
• Tears and body insecurities The authentic influencer as change-maker?
• Body and beauty pressures in the Norwegian influencer industry Exploring media discourses on influencers and their impact on beauty standards
• Instagram as an affective battlefield Patriotic inspirational influencers as strategic narrators
• Contributors
• Index