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Lighting the participatory spark? The role of social media influencers in initiating political participation Cover

Lighting the participatory spark? The role of social media influencers in initiating political participation

Open Access
|Mar 2025

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Moderated mediation modelComments: The diagram shows a conceptual model of the relationship between exposure to political influencer content and manifest participation, mediated by latent participation and moderated by general political interest and engagement with influencer.
Moderated mediation modelComments: The diagram shows a conceptual model of the relationship between exposure to political influencer content and manifest participation, mediated by latent participation and moderated by general political interest and engagement with influencer.

Figure 2

Respondents who reported encountering political content created by influencers during the past year at least once, by topic (per cent)Comments: n = 680
Respondents who reported encountering political content created by influencers during the past year at least once, by topic (per cent)Comments: n = 680

Figure 3

Findings for the moderated mediation model with exposure to political influencer content (IV) and manifest participation (DV)Comments: The moderators are mean-centred. Multicollinearity diagnostics are all good (tolerances range between .84 and .93 and VIF scores from 1.074 to 1.185).
Findings for the moderated mediation model with exposure to political influencer content (IV) and manifest participation (DV)Comments: The moderators are mean-centred. Multicollinearity diagnostics are all good (tolerances range between .84 and .93 and VIF scores from 1.074 to 1.185).

Respondents who reported encountering or not encountering political influencer content, by age group (per cent)

AnswerAge group
15–2425–3435–4445–5455–65
Yes8174685557
No1926324543

Regression analyses for Figure 3 with covariates

Mediator (0–1)DV (0–1)
BSEBSE
Exposure to politics (0–1)***.16.04
EXP*Engagement (0–1)−.16.18
EXP*Interest (0–1)−.08.17
Gender***.08.02
Age group***−.03.00
Education level−.00.01
Constant***.35
N602
R2.20

Exposure to politics (0–1) **.07.03
Mediator (0–1) ***.70.03
Gender .01.01
Age group −.01.01
Education level −.00.00
Constant **.09.03
N 602
R2 .60

Respondents who reported their attitudes towards political influencer content, by age group (per cent)

AttitudeAge group
15–2425–3435–4445–5455–65
Very positive149646
Somewhat positive3227211612
Neither negative nor positive3736413439
Somewhat negative815212422
Very negative2431212
Can’t say799119

Regression analyses for Figure 3

Mediator (0–1)DV (0–1)
BSEBSE
Exposure to politics (0–1)***.16.01
EXP*Engagement (0–1)–.14.18
EXP*Interest (0–1)–.12.17
Constant***.38.01
N602
R2.17

Exposure to politics (0–1) *.06.02
Mediator (0–1) ***.70.03
Constant ***.04.01
N 602
R2 .59

Respondents and their background information

VariableNumber of respondents in full sample (N = 1,025)% of NNumber of respondents in subsample (n = 680)% of n% in the population (15–65)
GenderMale519513375051
Female506493435049

Age15–24183181482217
25–34205201522220
35–44199191352020
45–54204201121719
55–65234231332023

RegionWestern Finland243241672524
Helsinki – Uusimaa340332283433
Southern Finland220211442121
Northern and Eastern Finland222221402122

Respondents’ engagement with political topics, by age group (per cent)

VariableAge group
15–2425–3435–4445–5455–65
Engagement with influencer content related to lifestyle politicsLiking4220211614
Commenting54638
Sharing52251
Disliking33144
No engagement4571717374

Engagement with influencer content related to formal politicsLiking2914131311
Commenting54338
Sharing55453
Disliking12224
No engagement6076787874
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2025-0002 | Journal eISSN: 2001-5119 | Journal ISSN: 1403-1108
Language: English
Page range: 25 - 54
Published on: Mar 29, 2025
Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 times per year

© 2025 Hanna Reinikainen, Nils S. Borchers, Aleksi Suuronen, Kim Strandberg, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.