Revisiting opinion leadership in the digital realm: Social media influencers as proximal mass opinion leaders

Harff, Darian; Stehr, Paula und Schmuck, Desiree (2025): Revisiting opinion leadership in the digital realm: Social media influencers as proximal mass opinion leaders. In: New Media & Society [Forthcoming]

Abstract

Social media influencers (SMIs) are ordinary people who rise to fame via social media. These individuals have repeatedly been labeled as opinion leaders, but often without in-depth theoretical reflection. We fill this gap by introducing a novel typology that allows for greater scrutiny in the identification of different types of opinion leaders in the modern media environment. Using this typology, we adequately capture—for the first time—opinion leadership as practiced by actors like SMIs, describing them as Proximal Mass Opinion Leaders (short: ProMOLs). We highlight that—despite their reach—ProMOLs exert a seemingly interpersonal and horizontal influence by engaging in personalized communication with opinion followers in self-built networks. Furthermore, we theoretically model the various flows of communication between ProMOLs, their communities, and other actors in the public sphere, thereby illustrating the multiple layers of ProMOLs’ impact. Finally, we discuss the model’s implications and suggest directions for future research.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Keywords: curated information flows; opinion leadership; parasocial relationships; social media influencers
• Faculties: Social Sciences > Department of Communications and Media (IfKW)
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 380 Commerce, communications and transportation
• ISSN: 1461-4448
• Language: English