Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / In 2013, creating a 57-second video can lead to more than $150,000 in profit for the creator and the creator can be anyone. This money-making opportunity comes from a recent popular trend known as a “viral video,” defined as a phenomenon of a video becoming highly popular through rapid, user-led distribution via the internet. However, research has not determined a clear model for creating a non-professional viral video. Interviews and YouTube analytics revealed how the video “I’m Farming and I Grow It,” a non-professional video created by three Kansas boys, was spread. Using the theories Uses and Gratifications and Two-Step Flow, this case study then analyzed the comments posted on the viral video and a content analysis of the comments identified the key factors mentioned by users, which contributed to the videos’ millions of views. The results conclude the key components for making a non-professional video go viral are “opinion leaders” spreading the message and video content that elicits positive feelings such as joy, humor, or praise. This study also provides a model to help a non-professional video go viral based on previous research and this case study.

In the networks of relationships that influence others behavior and attitude are called opinion leaders. The two-step flow theory suggests that information through a variety of media will receive by opinion leaders, and the opinion leaders will spread the information and have the effect to other people. Today's consumer market companies often offer a trial to the high popularity bloggers for product placement, to establish a positive attitude, good reputation, and to enhance consumers purchase behavior. The views of opinion leaders in the virtual community, either positive or negative affect, all have impact to the members of the community (Bansal & Voyer, 2000). In this study, we view the Xbox LIFE community website as a research field, and use depth interviews of qualitative research as a major research method. Through the depth interview we can know the type difference of community website members and understand how the opinion leaders in the community convey the information. In this study we found that opinion leaders¡¦high degree of participation and professional knowledge in the community played a great influence in the community. The opinion leaders¡¦ speeches and views have also become the main sources to the members of the group.This study will help enterprises to seek more marketing-effective way in use online WMO(word of mouth) in the future. From this study we can find that to operate the community website are not just set up the fan pages just because the community websites are in vogue. We must discover the key to affect the community websites¡¦ members, and create the way to bring the community members together. That is the key to promote brand and service.

The Two-Step Flow of Communication suggests that opinion leaders have a greater impact on consumers' product choices and decisions than marketers. With the advent of the Internet and e-commerce, many consumer researchers expanded the study of opinion leadership to incorporate electronic Word-of-Mouth behavior (eWOM) into the Two-Step Flow of Communication. Yet, with the recent and increasing prominence of social media, there appears to be a gap within the opinion leadership literature. Several studies have examined how the Internet and social media empower opinion leaders to instantaneously influence large crowds with eWOM. Marginally few studies, however, have considered how the production of user-generated content (UGC) among opinion leaders can further expand their peer influence. Furthermore, emergent research illustrates that social media is transforming into an enclave for celebrity culture, wherein celebrities use social media to invoke gossip and fantasy in consumers. These technological and cultural shifts within the Internet and social media necessitate an understanding of how UGC, social media and celebrity culture fit within the Two-Step Flow of Communication. In order to address these gaps, the current study probed the relationships amongst parasocial interaction, opinion leadership and willingness to participate in UGC and eWOM. Specifically, parasocial interaction is a history of interactions between a consumer and celebrity that manifest into a fantasized, personal relationship. Relevant hypotheses were developed and used to construct a theoretical model. Data were collected from a nationally representative sample (n = 555) and a Structural Equation Model was subsequently run to test the hypotheses. The findings suggest that social values, knowledge and parasocial interaction are positively related to opinion leadership. In turn, opinion leadership is positively related to willingness to participate in UGC and eWOM. Parasocial interaction, too, is positively related to willingness to participate in UGC and eWOM. A mediation effect was supported whereby opinion leadership significantly mediates the relationship between parasocial interaction and UGC, but not eWOM. The production of UGC is shown to be dependent upon parasocial interaction and opinion leadership. Nonetheless, eWOM does not seem to necessitate opinion leadership and can be produced directly from parasocial interactions.

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KRY is a health-related app that provides a conversation with a doctor or psychologist through an app. KRY has chosen to market themselves through influencer marketing at different platforms like for instance Youtube. When influencers market KRY they encourage their followers to pay money for something that plays an important role regarding their own health. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the questions: What communicational strategies do influencers use to market KRY through sponsored video-vlogs? And how does the brand KRY get communicated through influencer marketing in sponsored video-vlogs? The thesis is considered relevant and is contributing to existing field of research because of the fact that much of the already existing research regarding influencer marketing is examining marketing of physical products. In other words, there exists lots of research regarding influencer marketing, but not much research focusing of influencer marketing of health-related services. This is the knowledge gap that this thesis aims to fill. The method the thesis is using is a multimodal analysis in combination with a rhetorical method. The material consists of the three vlogs in collaboration with KRY on Youtube which have the most views. The result shows that influencers market KRY by focusing on the intimacy between themselves and the viewers, talking about their own experience of using KRY, using emotion-related arguments and customizing the marketing after their own brand and their specific target groups of viewers. KRY as a brand did not get communicated very clearly, but could be distinguished by the fact that the influencers showed the app in their vlogs and that the brand KRY got related to positive emotions and words by all the influencers.

<p><strong>Purpose/Aim:</strong> To create a communication strategy for PADI Nordic with the intention of getting Swedish divers, who have been certified abroad, to Swedish dive centers.</p><p><strong>Material/Method: </strong>The study is based on a number of personal interviews conducted with a) divers who are active in Sweden, b) divers who are not active in Sweden and c) representatives from PADI and PADI affiliated dive centers.</p><p><strong>Main results: </strong>The main reason that people who have been certified abroad do not dive in Sweden is that they regard it as being too complicated, too cold, too expensive and with nothing interesting to see. These might partly be misconceptions that can be corrected through a communication strategic effort. The best way to change this perception is by two different forms of communication. One will go from PADI Nordic straight to the divers through an email. This will have the purpose of getting their attention, making diving sound interesting and raise their awareness in preparation for the other part of the process. The other part is communication from PADI affiliated dive centres directed towards the divers. This will be in the form of more traditional marketing, and will have the purpose of making diving in Sweden sound easy, uncomplicated and price worthy. Hopefully this will bring people in to the dive centres, and in the ideal case they will in time also bring their friends along – by becoming the first link in a two step flow of communication.</p><p> </p>

Purpose/Aim: To create a communication strategy for PADI Nordic with the intention of getting Swedish divers, who have been certified abroad, to Swedish dive centers. Material/Method: The study is based on a number of personal interviews conducted with a) divers who are active in Sweden, b) divers who are not active in Sweden and c) representatives from PADI and PADI affiliated dive centers. Main results: The main reason that people who have been certified abroad do not dive in Sweden is that they regard it as being too complicated, too cold, too expensive and with nothing interesting to see. These might partly be misconceptions that can be corrected through a communication strategic effort. The best way to change this perception is by two different forms of communication. One will go from PADI Nordic straight to the divers through an email. This will have the purpose of getting their attention, making diving sound interesting and raise their awareness in preparation for the other part of the process. The other part is communication from PADI affiliated dive centres directed towards the divers. This will be in the form of more traditional marketing, and will have the purpose of making diving in Sweden sound easy, uncomplicated and price worthy. Hopefully this will bring people in to the dive centres, and in the ideal case they will in time also bring their friends along – by becoming the first link in a two step flow of communication.

Denna uppsats avser att undersöka publikens attityder gentemot svenska influencers på Instagram. Studien undersöker hur omfattande publiken påverkas av sponsrade samarbeten mellan influencers och företag på Instagram. Vidare studeras effekten av publikens attityder och följaktligen deras agerande där utvecklingen av influencer marketing tas i beaktning. Med hjälp av materialet från studiens kvantitativa metod har data bearbetats tillsammans med teorier som huvudsakligen bygger på Katz &amp; Lazarsfelds teori om Tvåstegshypotesen. Utefter teorins utveckling följer därefter Word of Mouth, Influencer marketing och slutligen Uses and gratifications. I samband med att influencer marketing blir alltmer populärt avser studien att bidra till forskningen i ämnet. Sammanfattningsvis har metod och teori bidragit till att hantera och analysera uppsatsens frågeställningar och syfte. Uppsatsens slutsats är att publiken upplever att deras attityd påverkas av sponsrade samarbeten på Instagram vilket bidrar till ytterligare fördjupning kring influencers som varumärke. Respondenterna upplever att deras attityd påverkas i samband av mängden samarbeten som förekommer och enligt studiens resultat påverkas publiken oavsett om de följer influencers på Instagram eller inte.

Syftet med studien är att ge insikt i om och hur lokala kampanjer kan användas för att öka framgången hos större välgörenhetskampanjer. Metoden som använts för att undersöka detta är en serie av intervjuer med personer som besitter insikter i hur kampanjen gick till och mottogs. Teorierna som använts är teorier kring kampanjande, tvåstegshypotesen samt dagordningsteorin. Resultatet visar att tvåstegshypotesen följts i kampanjen och att det varit framgångsrikt. Genom att använda sig av passande budskap och kanal har kampanjen lyckats engagera fler personer än vid tidigare Musikhjälpen-kampanjer. Slutsatsen efter denna studie är att lokala kampanjer kan användas framgångsrikt i dessa typer av kampanjer i Sverige och att valet av budskap och kanal är viktigt för kampanjens framgång. Vid framtida studier vore det intressant att undersöka välgörenhetskampanjer där de använt sig av andra typer av budskap och kanaler. Det vore även intressant att undersöka tvåstegshypotesen vid kommersiella kampanjer samt att undersöka eventuella risker vid denna typen av kampanjer. / The purpose of this study is to examine if, and how local campaigns can be used to increase the success of a bigger charity campaign. The method used to study this is a series of interviews with people with insight in the campaign. For the study interviews have been conducted with both the targeted audience and with one of the creators and head figures of the local campaign. The theories used in the study are various theories about campaigning, the two step-flow of communication and the agenda-setting theory. The result shows that local campaigns can be used successfully in bigger campaigns. By using a channel and a message well suited for the cause the campaign managed to engage people in a way that earlier campaigns failed to. The conclusion of this study is that the two-step flow of communication still is relevant in these types of campaigns in Sweden. Through the two-step flow of communication the campaigns can reach and engage people in a way that a more direct strategy cannot achieve. Future studies could examine campaigns that have used a different message and channel to achieve its goals. The usage of the two-step flow of communication in commercial campaigns would also be interesting to study in order to see potential differences between campaigns for profit versus not for profit. Something that in the future can contribute to the studies around the two-step flow of communication and charity campaigns are the potential risks it brings for the organization regarding public relations.

In 2019, the World Health Organization classified vaccine hesitancy as one of the ten biggest threats to global health. Since then, the anti-vaccination movement has expanded, at the same time as the Covid-19 virus has spread around the world. This thesis examines how opinion leaders in an anti-vaccination Facebook group design their communication in order to spread their alternative realities of Covid-19 vaccines. This case study focuses on what a specific anti-vaccination online community’s rhetorical situation looks like, and which rhetorical appeals are being used by the group’s opinion leaders. It has its theoretical starting point in a modified version of Lazarsfeld and Katz’s Two-step flow of communication that was put in relation to Bitzer’s and Aristotle's rhetoric theories. The result shows that the use of logos, ethos and pathos depends on the rhetorical situation. Pathos dominated the opinion leader's Facebook posts as their language was emotionally emphasized and appealed to individuals' feelings. Emotional arguments were seen as an effective approach to receive engagement from the recipients. Logos was the least used appeal and the opinion leaders' arguments rarely involved scientific proof or credible sources. This was considered to be due to the fact that the rhetorical audience consisted of like-minded people who already shared the views of the opinion leader. Therefore, they did not need to be convinced with fact-based arguments. This study was conducted through a netnographic approach and a rhetorical analysis with the aim of helping to fill a knowledge gap that can be helpful as support in preventative measures to reduce vaccine resistance through communication.