Social media influencers talk about politics: Investigating the role of source factors and PSR in Gen-Z followers’ perceived information quality, receptivity and sharing intention

ABSTRACT

Afforded by the unprecedented interactivity of social media, social media influencers (SMI) can build strong and trusting relationships with their followers. Such connections carry great potential and may be a powerful asset for political campaigns. Drawing on the existing literature on parasocial relationships (PSR) and political persuasion, we examined the effect of source factors and PSR on followers’ perceived message quality, receptivity, and sharing intention in a political advocacy context. An online survey of 390 U.S. university students showed that, in general, SMIs who engage in sharing political messages would influence a young audience’s opinion formation. Our findings offered a unique and significant perspective: source characteristics of expertise, similarity, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and interactivity will foster parasocial relationships, which leads to a higher level of perceived information quality, and then further predicts higher receptivity toward the SMI’s political advocacy and elicits the followers’ sharing intention.

KEYWORDS:

• Source factors
• parasocial relationship
• social media influencer
• endorsement
• information quality
• political communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2023.2173700

Notes

1. There’s no significant difference of perceived information quality (t(388) = −1.48, p > .05) and receptivity (t(388) = −1.84, p > .05) between the two messages. However, there is significant difference of issue involvement (t(388) = −8.21, p < .001) and sharing intention (t(388) = −4.35, p < .001) between the two conditions. The GND tweet has significant higher issue involvement and sharing intention than the DACA tweet.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zicheng Cheng

Zicheng Cheng (M.A. Boston University) is a PhD Candidate in mass communications at Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University. Her research interest includes political participation and civic engagement on digital media.

Jin Chen

Jin Chen (M.A. Northern Illinois University) is a PhD Candidate in mass communications at the Bellisario College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University. Her scholarly interest lies at the intersection of health communication, interactive media technologies, and social psychology.

Rachel X. Peng

Rachel X. Peng (M.A. University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) is a PhD Candidate in mass communications at Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University. Her research examines the intersection of health communication, strategic communication, and new media from a social scientific perspective.

Heather Shoenberger

Heather Shoenberger, JD, PhD (University of Missouri) is an assistant professor at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on the role of authenticity in persuasive communication, media effects, and advertising. She has published in Journal of Advertising, and Communication Research, among others.