"The Influencer Industry" by Emily Hund

In writing "The Influencer Industry," Emily Hund, a University of Pennsylvania researcher, had a challenge: to explore the "increasingly-commercialized, social media-focused and sprawling internet environment" to find the influencers, the people that we go to to find truth or at least what we believe to be the truth."Amid the immense noise of social media content, who should be singled out as worth listening to?" That's the question that Hund posed.What she found out is that the game has changed.  In the internet's early years, there were bloggers who gained audiences, individuals who did an end run around traditional media to reach the public.But as more money came into play, as advertising campaigns became involved, as marketers took action branding deals followed and the influencer industry grew at a startling rate, said Hund.Today with "a massive pool of influencers" on the scene, Tik Tok plays a major role when it comes to the influencer industry."We've reached an existential turning point," Hund told Steve Tarter. The public is rightfully frustrated now but needs to aware of what has happened: "The mass media era of the 20th century became atomized in the 21st, personal stories and interactions became vehicles for commercial messages," she noted."Digital self-expression, and the degree to which it is considered 'real,' became tied to the shifting needs of profit-motivated companies," writes Hund.