Sexistisk reklam i influencers personliga kanaler. En kvalitativ intervjustudie om unga människors uppfattning och värdering av influencer-reklam på det sociala mediet Instagram

Abstract

This study examines what perspectives there are among young Swedish adults and how they perceive sexist content on Swedish influencers´ personal Instagram accounts in relation to gender-discriminatory advertising. To do so, six qualitative interviews have been conducted with both men and women aged 20 to 30, who all live in Sweden, specifically in Gothenburg. During the interviews the young people were asked to analyze and describe their social media usage and habits, furthermore their opinion on what they perceive as sexist content on influencers personal Instagram account compared to traditional marketing by the companies themselves. This study is written within the media- and communication field and focuses on how the receiver interprets with messages in the digital media landscape. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the views of young Swedish adults between the ages of 20-30 and how they perceive influencers' advertising collaborations on the social media plattform, Instagram, in relation to ideals of beauty, gender stereotypes and sexualisation. The theoretical framework of this study consisted of the theories of reception studies and cultural studies, specifically Stuart Hall's encoding-decoding model, mainly in the third question where the respondents were asked to react and discuss some specific Instagram posts from the influencers themselves but in collaboration with companies. Additionally, the study was based on previous research in the field that showed how women in advertising have long been portrayed based on their body and attractive appearance and considered to be for the male viewer. The main results of the study showed that young Swedish women and men today's society still don't see very differently on beauty ideals and gender stereotypes, despite the development of influencers and social media advertising. Women are still perceived to have more pressure on their physical appearance and to appear more attractive than men. They are often more sexualized based on their bodies or challenging poses they´re using in their photos and advertising collaborations on their personal Instagram accounts. However, the result also emphasizes the importance of the fact that a younger audience, based on the respondents in the study, also thinks that influencers should be allowed to show exactly what they want on their personal Instagram accounts, regardless of advertising or not, without being sexualized and accused of gender-discriminatory advertising.