Kungen av Instagram

Sammanfattning: Cultivation theory is a well-established theory within the field of mass communication. Its initial objective was to explain if and how television viewing, could influence its viewers perspective of reality and thereby also the culture in which they live. New media and more specifically social media has taken over the role of television in that it has become the main everyday source of information for most people in the western world. Since social media then, has the ability to influence our perception of reality, our aim with the study was to explore what motivated male users of Instagram to follow the account of Dan Bilzerian, who in our opinion, is an example of someone representative of male hegemony and how this account can play a part in reproducing certain ideals of masculinity. The results we found from our interviews with the male followers, showed that the male interviewees main reason for following Bilzerian on Instagram was idle pleasure, entertainment and that they found his account to be inspirational. The participants themselves did not define Bilzerian or the pictures he published as particularly masculine. However, we interpret the fact that interviewees found Bilzerian’s account as inspirational, as them being participants to the masculine hegemony represented in the account. Therefore they participated in reproducing the same masculine ideals.