Social media influencers have been increasing their, well, influence — talking about subjects ranging from skin cream and fashion to politics and health. A number of them were credentialed to this summer’s Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the White House earlier hosted its first Creator Economy Conference.
But who are these content creators and influencers, and how do they tend to wield their influence?
Amanda Kehrberg is a PhD student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication joined The Show to talk more about it.
Full conversation
AMANDA KEHRBERG: Yeah, so it's interesting because content creator has kind of come into Vogue right now, but I would use it synonymously with influencer. But these are people who are at the most basic level creating contents, right?
And what we've seen is as we've had generations grow up with these tools, more and more people are diving in and creating content, which is how we get these new identities of content creators.
It kind of connects to a little bit of a few trends, both the kind of citizen journalism trend that like this upset of the role of anyone can kind of be a journalist, right?
And then this the aspect of fandom because so much of our online interaction and experience is centered and kind of constructed around this logic of fandom.
MARK BRODIE: And to be clear, these are generally people, the people we're talking about are generally either on social media or some other online platform.
KEHRBERG: Yeah, so they're creating either like videos, short form videos for TikTok, YouTube. Yeah, traditionally, we think of content creators as video centric, but you can also get influencers on platforms like Instagram who rely, you know, originally primarily on photos or influencers who do blogs, still a big thing.
So, yeah, it, it's interesting because there isn't an exact definition. There's some argument about whether you technically have to have a certain number of followers to deserve the term, like maybe 10,000 or more, like depending on what your reach is. But I would say, I think that those boundaries are probably blurrier than we might give them credit.
BRODIE: Yeah. And you know, we saw, for example, earlier this summer, both major party political conventions accredited, you know, content creators, influencers to come and, and cover these things. Was that just a way to maybe get people who aren't watching CNN or aren't watching the major TV networks to see what's going on and for the parties and the candidates to get their messages out to different people?
KEHRBERG: I think that's a lot of it. That sort of difficulty in reaching youth voters is, is definitely not new.
But I think that we are in a point where people are realizing at least new tactics on how to better reach youth. The Biden administration began working with influencers in 2021 to get out vaccine information. And that was, that was a lot to do with, "hey, we need to reach young audiences. Where are they? OK, they're on TikTok, let's find some of these TikTok influencers. Let's connect with them, let's connect to their networks." a
And that kind of speaks to a broader issue in terms of how in the digital age audiences are so fragmented. So then after that, they moved into, "OK, it's 2022 we'd like to start combating some of the misinformation about the war in Ukraine."
But I think what's funny is even though we kind of chafe at new media, no matter what our era is and the new ways, I mean, new language, new expressions. But even when it looks different, these values are not different, the kids on TikTok are dancing about important things.
So even though it can look kind of goofy, I think to different people, it is important and I see increasingly it getting taken more seriously, exactly as you said, this was just a watershed moment to have 200 content creators credentialed like press at the DNC was amazing. I think the RNC this year had about 70.
BRODIE: Well, so how does that work? Like if you are a content creator and you're invited to the RNC or the DNC, are you expected to just kind of be a mouthpiece for whatever they are saying and doing? And you just have to get the message out like, do you have the role of a traditional journalist where you're expected to fact check and think critically about what's being said and report what is actually true?
KEHRBERG: That is, I think the question at the crux of all this because it's something that we're still kind of figuring out. I mean, I think that, are they journalists? Yes and no. Are they advertisers? Yes and no. I mean, are they still kind of trying to figure out who they are? Because I think they're getting credentialed as journalists is a big deal, but they don't have the same kind of norms. They don't have necessarily the same kind of values or shared principles. They definitely do not believe in objectivity.
So I think that it's a step in the right direction, to recognize that we can't just look at them as these kind of new advertising entities. But what does that mean? Then when they move more into that space because they just don't operate like that kind of classic journalist.
So we're at this, I think, kind of cusp of a turning point because there are content creators talking now about, "OK, as we start to professionalize, what are our ethical norms going to be?"
So you have people like Vitus Spehar of @UnderTheDeskNews on TikTok or John Green of the @Vlogbrothers saying, you know what yeah, we've really appreciated being invited to have a seat at the table, but we are not going to go anymore if you don't let us talk, if you don't let us get our message across.
So I think what I take from that is that this kind of you know, new generation of creators see themselves almost more as activists and advocates.
BRODIE: Well, it sounds like the equation and the calculation has to be, you know, these content creators can get our message out to millions or tens of millions of people. It might not be exactly the message we want to get out. But let's just hope it's something kind of approximating what we want and it's going to go to a whole lot of people that otherwise, as you say, would never maybe even have heard of us.
KEHRBERG: Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, I mean, sharing information is definitely obviously part of these new spaces where yeah, we see influencers and content creators taking on the mantle of sharing health information, sharing political information sharing, you know, policy information and space and science information, and all that is so essential.
And it's part of like how we're learning how to better share that information in these new platforms in these contexts, collapsed spaces where they're getting science information mixed in with memes and fun and goofy stuff.
But yeah, it is also about, I think, sharing the spark of passion that will pay dividends for organizations and for campaigns.
So even if that message is not as perfect as you would get it, if you sat down in your marketing department or your owned media, at least, you know, if you can get the passion shared, the spark of curiosity, then you can call people in who may be, you know, future advocates, future ambassadors, future followers.
BRODIE: What do you see as the future of content creators? And by future, we mean six months down the road, right? It doesn't have to be way off.
KEHRBERG: I think, OK, the thing that I'm really excited about is if they do start to professionalize and they sit down and they create a list of principles. I want to see what those look like.
I want to see the 10 principles of ethical conduct for influencers and content creators today. Where do we stand? Are we closer to journalists? Are we closer to activists, you know, who are we closer to entertainers? Like, what is that going to look like when you know, we get a committee of people together to actually nail it down?
