Parasocial Opinion Leaders? A Qualitative Study on the Role of Social Media Influencers in Young People's Information Behavior and OpinionForming Processes

Abstract

So-called Social Media Influencers (SMI) are increasingly common participants in political discourse. Due to their close relationship with their followers and their horizontal style of communication, these personalities are often characterised as a new breed of mediators of informative content and as digital opinion leaders, especially for young audiences. However, there are only few empirical findings on their actual relevance in the opinion-forming processes. Moreover, although parasocial relationships (PSR) have been identified as a reinforcing factor for the persuasive effect of SMI, it is largely unclear which specific characteristics and functions play a role in relationship and identification processes. Based on the theoretical concept of parasocial opinion leadership, this study investigates why young people follow individual social media personalities (motives), how they characterise them (key features), and what relevance they attribute to them within their opinion-forming processes (functions). The results from 22 semi-structured individual interviews with adolescents (14-to 17-year-olds) and young adults (18to 24-year-olds) show significant gender-specific differences related to the perceived PSR to individual personalities and the attributed characteristics. The respondents rate SMI relevance for forming their own opinions differently depending on whether it is personal information that is relevant to their everyday lives or political information that is relevant to society. The sub-group of influencers takes on entertainment, inspiration, and orientation functions.