The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge and provide information about the attitudes that young females have about influencers and influencer marketing, but also to examine the factors that persuade them to a purchase that they have been exposed to through influencer marketing on Instagram. The study has a qualitative method and was made by three focus groups. Every group was composed with four participants between the age of 16 to 18 years. The conclusion of this study is that overall there is a positive attitude towards influencer marketing since it is believed to open up to a more personalized commercial. Factors such as maintaining a good relationship between the influencer and their followers is crucial for followers to perceive the collaborations with companies as genuine and accepting the information. The participants are considered to be aware about the influence and therefore can control how much they want to be affected. The influencer has the opportunity to create new needs in the consumer minds, but whether it leads to a purchase are also often affected by events like the surroundings, personal thoughts or unforeseen events.

Creator or billboard? An interview study based on influencers’ participation and impact in a clothing company’s campaign. The purpose of this study is to examine six influencers’ experiences of participating in a clothing company's campaign. The aim is to acquire a deeper understanding of what impact the influencers have in the campaign. The method used is qualitative interviews with six of fifteen influencers who participated in a clothing company's campaign in October 2017. The influencers were given the ability to freely interpret what the company’s lifestyle meant for them by creating movies, pictures and text.  The People’s Choice and two-step flow theory are used to mark the influencers’ impact on their networks, where they are working as opinion leaders. The Theory of Practice gives an understanding for how the influencers are positioning themselves with the company and also contributes with the concept of “social capital”. Trust in today's society shows a world which is changing quickly and the importance for companies to create relationships. Impression management helps with an understanding about the creation of oneself, and branding, identity, image and reputation gives an understanding about the creation of the company. The results are that they are given the opportunity to interpret and put their own interpretations on the company’s campaign even though there are implicit power structures who control the campaign. The influencers get to create freely - as long as they make a material that corresponds with the company's impression management, branding, identity, image and reputation.

In this article, we explore the Black Lives Matter activist Alicia Garza's Twitter usage during the month of June in 2020 with a critical discourse analysis (CDA). Our aim with the study was to examine the underlying motives and values in Garzas tweeting, and if there were any prevailing themes, in order to see if there was a difference between the discourse used for personal matters and the discourse related to her activism. To support our analysis we utilized critical theory to gain a critical reference and the two-step flow hypothesis to delve into the possible effects Garza's position as an opinion leader has on her tweeting. After processing and examining a total of 48 tweets from the month of June, through the use of coding, our analysis suggests that there are several prevalent themes that can be distinguished in her tweeting. The themes we found were personal tweets, tweets expressing solidarity, tweets urging for action, tweets exuding authority, and promotional tweets. The line between personal matters and the discourse related to her activism was found to be fluid and unable to be strictly defined.

The diploma thesis "Analysis of the Czech and American News Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Elections in the U.S. and American President" examined if American press, represented by The New Your Times, is influencing the coverage of presidential candidates in Czech press, which is represented by Mladá fronta DNES and Hospodářské noviny. The examination is based on the example of presidential race in 2008 in USA. The aim of the research is if there are signs of international two-step flow in Czech press. The second part of the research is focused on so called honeymoon effect in Czech press on the example of news Coverage of President Barack Obama in his first term in office. The quantitative content analysis showed that there are similar features in the coverage of presidential race in Czech and American press. The investigation also showed that Czech press is more positive in the coverage of Barrack Obama at the beginning of his first term in office and this positivity declined in the second year.

Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced steady declines in news consumption and commensurate attrition in civic engagement and political participation. Americans read newspapers at less than one fourth the rate of 60 years ago; voter turnout has fallen to the point where the U.S. ranks 23 out of 24 established democracies; signing petitions, volunteering for a civic organization like the PTA and political party affiliation are all at contemporary lows. But these indicators only tell half the story…the younger half. Because among Americans over age 50, attrition in all these areas is much milder; among those under age 30 they are much steeper. So do young adults get news? If so, how do they get news? If not, how do they find out about things? A 21-year old journalism student reported that: “I usually just hear it from friends, when I talk to friends.” The present study employed four methods: Secondary analysis of longitudinal Pew data; interviews and focus groups about news consumption and media use habits, including social media and wireless devices; a survey on social media use and its relationship to news and news knowledge; and an experiment testing a novel game as a way to convey news and civics knowledge, all involving students at three large state universities. Findings include the following: students often rank social media use, like Facebook, as their most important and most-used media; social media are negatively related with traditional news use and with news knowledge; students draw clear and important distinctions between news and information; one method of teaching (direct instruction) works well while another (a news game) works, but not as well. Of particular interest is the role of opinion leaders in the two-step flow of news, and the role of relevance and need for orientation in agenda setting. Novel contributions include a clearer definition of students’ distinction between news and important information as they define it, a framework by which to experiment with creating an interactive game using news to promote news seeking, and some provocative recommendations for future research. / text

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka informationsinhämtningen hos folk i vår närhet angående COVID-19. Vi ville veta vilken plattform dessa människor får/fått sin primära information under dessa två perioder, men också få en förståelse kring vilka informationskällor som de tycker/tyckte vsr viktigast för dem.Forskningsfrågor: Vilka plattformar har folk i vår närhet under Varningsperioden och Rekylperioden? Vilka informationskällor var viktiga för folk i vår närhet under Varningsperioden och Rekylperioden? Vilka medier/plattformar har folk i vår närhet mest förtroende för under Varningsperioden och Rekylperioden?Metod: Vår studie genomfördes med hjälp utav en kvantitativ enkätundersökning. Studien använde sig utav en kvantitativ och tvärsnittsdesign, även kallad survey design.Resultat: Resultatet i vår enkätundersökning visade tydligt att respondenterna primära informationsinhämtning kom genom olika plattformar från myndigheterna, deras hemsidor och sociala medier under båda dessa perioder. Bortser vi myndigheterna, så var de journalistiska nyhetsmedierna respondenternas andrahandsval. När det gäller respondenternas viktigaste informationskällor under dessa två perioder, så föredrog de myndigheternas hemsidor och de journalistiska nyhetsmedierna. Angående respondenternas förtroende för medier under dessa två perioder, så visade det sig att respondenterna hade mest förtroende för medier under dessa två perioder, så visade det sig att respondenterna hade mest förtroende för myndigheterna, och förtroendet har stigit med tiden. Respondenternas engagemang låg överlägset mest hos myndigheterna under både Varningsperioden och Rekylperioden.Slutsats: Vår enkätundersökning visade tydligt att folk i vår närhets primära informationsinhämtning angående COVID-19 kom genom olika plattformar från myndigheterna, såsom Folkhälsomyndigheten och 1177 Vårdguiden under både Varningsperioden och Rekylperioden. De journalistiska nyhetsmedierna var respondenternas andrahandsval, såsom Aftonbladet och SVT under båda perioderna. Respondenternas förtroende under båda perioderna var starkast för myndigheterna, såsom Folkhälsomyndigheten, och i nuläget var det jämnt med hos båda två. Lägst trovärdighet var för sociala medier.

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This diploma thesis is thematically oriented towards early theories of public opinion of the late 19th century. Concretely, it deals with the theories of Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill and James Bryce. The thesis presents an analysis, interpretation and a comparison of these three thinkers and concentrates on the following topics: the definition of the term "public opinion"; the formation of public opinion; the influence individuals, groups and society as a whole have on public opinion; and the role the media play in public opinion. Further, it shows how these authors' thoughts are continued in selected 20th century theories of public opinion, namely in Walter Lippmann's concept of public opinion, the Two-step flow model developed by Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's Spiral of Silence, Irving Crespi's theory of the Public Opinion Process and Giovanni Sartori's "cascade model" of public opinion. Key words: public opinion, media, Two-step flow model, Spiral of Silence, Public Opinion Process, cascade model of public opinion, Alexis de Tocqeuville, John Stuart Mill, James Bryce, W. Lippmann, E. Katz, P. Lazarsfeld, E. Noelle-Neumann, I. Crespi, G. Sartori

Listan över influerare som har gjort skönhetsingrepp kan göras lång. För att nämna ett exempel har Bianca Ingrosso med ett följarantal på 343 000 på Youtube talat öppet om att hon gjort lipfillers (Ingrosso, 2020). Dessa inlägg där influerare talar om hur de korrigerar sin kropp i kombination med att de unga är i majoritet på internet och sociala medier (Svenskarna och internet 2019) ligger till grund för vår vilja att genomföra denna undersökning. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur influerares reklam och framställning av skönhetsingrepp kan skapa betydelse för hur unga kvinnor ser på den egna kroppen. För att genomföra studien har vi använt oss av sex stycken kvalitativa intervjuer med kvinnor i åldrarna 15–17 år. Intervjuerna har spelats in och transkriberats och materialet har sedan analyserats för att besvara våra frågeställningar. Utifrån våra intervjuer kan vi se att influerares sätt att tala om och göra reklam för skönhetsingrepp har betydelse för unga kvinnors attityder till den egna kroppen. Några av respondenterna har även uttryckt att de blivit osäkra gällande sin egen kropp efter att ha sett inlägg gällande skönhetsingrepp från en influerare. Vi kan tydligt se att respondenterna tror att unga kvinnor är den grupp som påverkas mest av influerares framställning av skönhetsingrepp. Intervjuerna visar att respondenterna tar del av ett dominerande skönhetsideal på sociala medier och de beskriver idealet som att man ska vara smal, lång och vacker. Vi kan tydligt se, genom de analyserade intervjuerna, att de unga kvinnorna som deltog i denna studie är kritiska till influerare som talar om och gör reklam för skönhetsingrepp, då de tycker att det uppmanar andra till att korrigera sin kropp. Trots kritiken så spelar influerare en stor roll i de unga kvinnornas liv och de uttrycker att de får inspiration av influerare gällande var och vad man äter, hur man klär sig och hur man tränar. Vi kan därmed se en viss ambivalens i respondenternas svar då de följer specifika influerare samtidigt som de riktar kritik gentemot dessa. / The list of influencers who has had cosmetic procedures done can be made long. To mention one example, Bianca Ingrosso with 343 000 followers on Youtube, has spoken openly about her lip fillers (Ingrosso 2020). These types of posts, where influencers talk about how they correct their body, in combination with the fact that young people are a majority of the internet and social media users (Svenskarna och internet 2019) forms the basis of our motivation to conduct this study. This study aims to analyze whether, and if so, how influencers advertising and speech about cosmetic procedures contribute in creating meaning regarding how young women view their own body. This study was conducted with six qualitative interviews, with women in age 15-17. The interviews have been recorded and transcribed and the material has been analyzed to answer our research questions. Throughout our analyzed interviews can we see that influencers' speech and advertising about cosmetic procedures are meaningful regarding young women's attitudes to their own body. Some of the respondents expressed that they felt insecure about their own body after seeing an influencer talk about cosmetic procedures. We can also see that the respondents think that young women as a group of people are affected by influencers' opinions about cosmetic procedures. In the interviews, we can also see that the respondents take part in constructing a dominating beauty ideal on social media and they define the ideal as being skinny, tall and beautiful. Clearly the young women who took part in this study are critical of how influencers talk and do commercials about cosmetic procedures, they think influencers tell others to correct their body. Despite the criticism, the young women in this study are still inspired by influencers, regarding where and what they eat, how they dress and how they work out. We can clearly see some ambivalence in the way the respondents answer as they follow specific influencers while they also are criticizing them.