The Buzz: They’re Not Called ‘Influencers’ for Nothing
November 2024
How often does a wedding dress designer testify at a Senate hearing? It might have been a first when Hayley Paige did so this past summer, but we can expect more such “social media influencers” to be weighing in on momentous policy questions in the future.
Paige, who starred on Say Yes to the Dress and has more than 1 million Instagram followers, appeared at the request of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who supports a new FTC rule banning noncompete agreements. Paige had been sued under a noncompete agreement and had to stop designing dresses.
“At a time when more and more people are getting their news on social media, working with creators just makes sense,” Warren told The Washington Post. “By reaching out to creators, [the public is] hearing directly on the platforms they use daily from the voices they know and trust.”
The White House gets it, too. A couple of weeks after Paige did her star turn, the Biden administration hosted the first Creator Economy Conference, “gathering industry leaders, creators, and policymakers,” as Forbes reported. The $250 billion “creator economy” is “a global force, influencing consumer behavior, culture, politics, education, entertainment, and commerce on a massive scale.”
‘Content Creators’
More and more political leaders and government agencies “are seeking to build and tighten their relationships with online content creators,” said the Post article, “often working with influencers to push their messaging, rather than relying on traditional media.”
This hasn’t happened overnight. Four years ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played the video game “Among Us” on Twitch, “along with a cadre of streamers,” the Post reported. And in September 2023, Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, hosted a four-hour livestream with “creators” including Keffals, Destiny and Vaush, who discussed affordable housing, student debt and climate change.
“The new generation of Americans aren’t getting their news from MSNBC, CNN or Fox,” Khanna says. “That’s just not how millennials and Gen Z consume news or get inspired. One of the ways they’re making decisions is engaging with streamers. It’s the equivalent of talk radio or cable for the new generation.”
That political leaders understood this became evident to all during the presidential campaign. This was “brat summer” for Kamala Harris, who appeared on Call Her Daddy, but it was Donald Trump who solidified his position as the “king of trolling,” in the words of National Review’s Caroline Downey on her podcast. The campaigns weren’t just using these platforms to reach the masses. “Their ground games [were] fueled by what happens in the cloud.”
Welcome to the ‘Manosphere’
And it was Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported, that made big gains by spending 90 minutes in a livestreamed chat with Adin Ross, “a foul-mouthed 24-year-old who has achieved a certain kind of stardom by playing videogames for an online audience.” Trump entered the “manosphere,” an “online universe of YouTubers, podcasters, live-streamers, online pranksters and more. They vary wildly in their tone, substance and obsessions. Some are jokey; some are vile. Running through them all is a certain unreformed notion of ‘Bro-dom.’” Trump’s most valuable adviser in this area, the one who encouraged him to invade this space? His own son, 18-year-old Barron, a New York University freshman.
It might be all fun and games on some level, but Capitol Hill is taking this new world of influencers seriously. Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who weighs his words carefully and would never be mistaken for Jake or Logan Paul, seems to get it. “Our Democratic senators know the media landscape in their states, and by working with incredible influencers who are talking every day to Americans, we’re able to spread the message of how we’re working to cancel student debt, lower health care costs, protect democracy and so much more,” Schumer told the Post.
Republican operatives clearly understand this brave new world, too, leaving it to the ink-stained wretches of the “legacy media” to catch up.
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More and more political leaders and government agencies “are seeking to build and tighten their relationships with online content creators,” said the Post article, “often working with influencers to push their messaging, rather than relying on traditional media.”
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