Online influencers become symbolic placeholders for audiences’ larger moral and political allegiances

Evidence

Limited public access to the media has been a major obstacle to the exercise of public influence on detrimental social policies and practices. The advent of the Internet and other revolutionary advances in communication technologies have enabled people to bypass, at least to some extent, media gatekeepers. Online influence, especially through social media, has become the principal vehicle for the exercise of social influence. Social media are instantaneous and wide reaching, transcending time, place, and national borders. Adherents morally legitimize and gain support for their causes and discredit those of their opponents largely through social media. However, as a political forum, the Internet is a double-edged tool. Unfiltered and unfettered, it is equally effective for mobilizing moral and social support for harmful purposes as for humane ones. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2975 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Online moral outrage often targets individuals not responsible for the harms cited — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 371; Public social media conflicts are dramatized and consumed as entertainment — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 593; Internet fame remains dependent on audience preferences and requires escalating self-disclosure (+5 more)

Related

• Social media equally amplify moral support for harmful and humane causes (similarity 0.90)
• Scandal-ridden influencers become ideological placeholders for divergent audiences (similarity 0.82)
• Online moral outrage often targets individuals not responsible for the harms cited (similarity 0.81)
• Public social media conflicts are dramatized and consumed as entertainment (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Social media equally amplify moral support for harmful and humane causes #qualifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2975