Prof. Dr. Christian von Sikorski (Media Effects Research Group), together with an international research team, has guest-edited a special issue of the journal American Behavioral Scientist entitled “The Political Role of Social Media Influencers.”

The issue explores the growing importance of influencers as strategic providers of political content—particularly in relation to their influence on younger audiences and democratic processes. In their introductory article, the editors develop a conceptual framework that classifies social media influencers along three key dimensions: density of political content, style of presentation, and proximity to political actors. Based on this model, they propose a typology of six influencer types, conceptualizing influencers as strategic political communicators.

Four additional articles by international research teams empirically investigate the phenomenon from different perspectives—including a systematic review, studies on political extremism on TikTok, trust in influencers as political information sources, and the role of “Astrotur” influencers in election campaigns.

Contributing authors include: Sophia Rothut, Ariel Hasell & Sedona Chinn, Irina Andreeva et al., and Márton Bene & Vanessza Juhász.

Read the publication: https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642251344208