German student perception of social media influencers and the relevance of ethical aspects

Abstract

Social media influencers have been an emerging topic in recent years, however the ethical relevance have been little explored. For this reason, the following research paper aims to further investigate German students’ perceptions of social media influencers and what role ethical aspects play in their perceptions as well as in the perceptions of social media influ- encers by conducting 8 semi-structured interviews. After conducting this study, the re- search findings demonstrated a negative trend regarding the trust level of social media in- fluencers. It can be concluded that German students perceive social media influencers as promoting unethical behaviour and unreliable and wishes social media influencers to put more initative in researching the product or service they choose to promote.