🙋‍♀️ Last, this article explores differences in the presence of these elements across SMIs (e.g., based on gender). As such, female SMIs in this sample are most likely to self-disclose and to offer simplifying political content, which may have positive consequences for followers’ political involvement.

📢 In addition, about half of the political videos contain specific content cues such as calls for participation or explanations of political terms that could elucidate why people often associate parasocial opinion leader functions with them (e.g., the ability to simplify political topics).

🤳 To compensate for the lack of personal exchange—which is the typical context of opinion leadership—SMIs for example use direct address or self-disclosure to build a connection with followers. I find that they employ these techniques as much in their political as in their non-political content.

📰 Consistent with the opinion leader label, SMIs are primarily opinion-driven in their communication. When factual claims are made, SMIs mainly draw from legacy news media to support them—but frequently they also fail to provide sources for most claims made in a video.

Top social issues advertisers across various EU countries in the last 90 days - lots and lots of fundraising advertising, particularly for aid to Gaza. From October, Meta stops this.

Possible areas of use
- in research on counter-stereotypical role models
- in social comparison research (it may act as a potentially important boundary factor of effects)
- in research on social media influencers (attainability may be their unique quality and explain their influence potential)