Social media influencers typically focus on topics like lifestyle, gaming, and fashion. However, recent studies show that they sometimes take on a political-activist role, e.g. by commenting on political issues like climate change or LGBT+ rights. Thereby, they can potentially influence the political attitudes, values, and behaviors of their followers. Building on the two-step-flow-model, we conceptualize social media influencers as digital opinion leaders and employ a cross-country experiment to test whether exposure to a political message relayed by a social media influencer can affect their followers’ policy attitudes, values, and democratic participation, compared to direct exposure to the same political message from an established news broadcaster. We collect data from Denmark and the U.S. (N=4,000), allowing comparison between media-political contexts characterized by high trust and low polarization (DK) and low trust and high polarization (USA). The conference paper presents findings from the preregistered study where data collection is running from mid-February to mid-March.

Women fashion and lifestyle influencers are known for their roles as consumers, labourers, entrepreneurs, objects of consumption, and their power to lead consumer trends. In post-socialist China and the burgeoning wanghong economy, these women influencers are embracing contradicting experiences and expectations, from the national and party gender policy that emphasises women’s traditional family roles to the rise of neoliberal narratives emphasising individual agency fuelled by the market economy. They constantly negotiate contradictory ideals such as empowerment, liberation, commercial exploitation, and neoliberal individualism. However, little empirical study systematically investigates how Chinese women influencers commodify their self-expression, the role of gender in this process, and how these practices are encouraged or constrained by stakeholders in the influencer industry in China. This study addresses this gap by analysing Chinese women self-branding of fashion and lifestyle influencers on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), a leading user-generated content e-commerce and lifestyle social media platform in China. This research uses an ethnographic study composed of (1) online and offline participant observation, (2) semi-structured interviews, complemented by (3) autoethnography. The findings reveal that influencers attract attention and monetise their content by striking a nerve and curating “inspiring” personas, highlighting the intersection of entrenched dominant feminine beauty standards, gender roles, and consumerism in the Chinese wanghong economy. They also push the age boundaries of neoliberal female subjects, while creating an exclusive bubble on Xiaohongshu shaped by class and location. This study deepens the understanding of gendered experience and the operation of neoliberal selves among women influencers in contemporary China.

Social media-fuelled popularity of the so-called ‘miracle drugs’ Ozempic and Wegovy prompted many concerns about off-label prescriptions, use without proper consultation, new compounding pharmacy formulations, the adverse side-effects of overuse, etc. While these issues are not new, emerging novel entanglements of many actors with conflicting interests—including patient influencers, telehealth and pharmaceutical companies—are involved in the assembly of health knowledge through product promotion and social media communication that raise crucial issues of how trust is multiply mediated and health/medical knowledge constructed and distributed. For instance, influencers create and maintain ‘authentic’ personas, gaining follower trust and pharmaceutical companies, long struggling with brand reputation, leverage these personas mediating public trust and increasing the ‘invisible hands’ (Sismondo 2018) with which they shape health/medical knowledge. However, the extent of commercial influence remains unclear, which is crucial for understanding the formation and relationships within the ecosystem of health knowledge online. Using an STS and digital mediatization lens, this paper draws upon key concepts such as expertise, trust, epistemic democratization and competition, ‘civic epistemologies’, and entanglements (Hepp and Couldry 2023; Jasanoff 2022; Marres 2018) to understand health communication relations of these actors online. Presenting findings from the first phase of my doctoral research—a hermeneutic content analysis of patient influencer, telehealth and pharmaceutical company Instagram and TikTok videos—this presentation focuses on understanding what is communicated, by whom, and how, revealing shifting marketing and communication practices on social media that ultimately work to restructure this knowledge ecosystem and impact public health choices.

Language is a social product intricately linked to identity and communication. It reflects personal and collective roles shaped by class, region, status, and habits (Groebner, 2004), shaping identity (Edwards, 2009). With the advent of digital and social media, our understanding of the acceptance of other languages and cultures has evolved. Such technological privileges have influenced how people communicate and interact. Specifically, more and more people are getting exposed to new spoken languages through platforms like Instagram and YouTube; it has become an easy way to adapt and learn foreign languages (Muftah, 2024).

RQ1: How do Maithili language Instagram influencers use posts and reels to promote cultural sustainability and educate their audiences about heritage?

RQ2: What strategies do Maithili language Instagram influencers employ to build online communities that foster cultural pride and identity?

This study employs a mixed-method approach to analyze Maithili-speaking influencers' linguistic and cultural practices advocacy through Instagram. Content from Instagram will be examined for language use, themes, and cultural sustainability strategies. Semi-structured interviews will provide insights into influencers' motivations and challenges in preserving their language. Purposive sampling will be employed to identify active Maithili creators.

Our research findings are expected to show how regional language influencers navigate globalization, highlighting their role in preserving their culture in the fast-paced globalization. The study will explore factors shaping language choices and digital sustainability strategies, contributing to discussions on linguistic diversity. Regional content fosters strong creator-audience engagement, addressing unique challenges like script compatibility, ingredient accessibility, and community-driven content requests.