Influencers kommunikativa trovärdighet: Tillhör framtiden Lil Miquela? : En kvalitativ studie om unga vuxnas uppfattningar kring avsändarens betydelse för den kommunikativa trovärdigheten på Instagram

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine the sender’s credibility on the social media platform Instagram since the new phenomenon robot-influencer has begun to interact on the platform. The purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of the sender's communicative credibility based on the young adults' view on Instagram's different influences, human as robot. The robot-influencer that is used in this study’s survey is Lil Miquela and the human influencer Lovette via the account action4humanity_se. A qualitative research method consisting of two group interviews is used to clarify seven participants different personal and private views on the sender's importance on Instagram. The theoretical concepts used in the study are digital intimacy, including concepts of mediated quasi-interaction, symbolic power and the theory of trust. Our study shows that the personal perspective is important for what the participants consider as a credible sender. The participants consider that the communication of a robot-influencer is credible in collaboration with companies or organizations but not credible in human domains such as skin care.