WHEN PERSONAL INFLUENCE AND STATE MESSAGING CONVERGE: AFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE THROUGH YOUTH CONTENT CREATION

Abstract

This study investigated the phenomenon of influencer marketing among youth content creators who engage in work with government agencies. Through in-depth one-to-one online and email interviews with content creators in Singapore, this study has identified the intentions and ideologies youth content creators employ while producing government-sponsored content on their platforms, as well as how influencers situate their subjectivities and experiences as citizens into their work for government agencies. Results showed that in their work for government-sponsored campaigns, influencers negotiate between their roles as influencers enacting affective labour with their roles as government spokespeople articulating affective governance by ensuring that the government-sponsored content they select are in line with their brand and beliefs; by ensuring that the posts they create are natural and relatable to their audience and; by viewing the work they do as performing a form of civic duty to their audience and community, mobilising affect in all stages of the work. In so doing, this study helps us understand how the work of governance has, in some way, been seconded to influencers, where influencers are said to be the exact source of affect in ‘affective governance’, contributing to the government’s pursuit of affective governance. Finally, this study also brings attention to the relationship between influencers and government agencies that may be described as mutually beneficial. This is because on one hand, influencers perform ‘affective infusion’ into government messaging through the affect they enact in their work, shaping and changing how government messaging is done. On the other hand, government agencies also contribute to a ‘professionalising’ of influencer work in engaging influencers to work on government campaigns, thereby benefitting both parties in this pursuit of influencer marketing via government-sponsored campaigns.