Influencers had the “loudest voices” online in this spring’s federal election, overtaking news outlets and politicians, says a new report.
The report from the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, co-ordinated by the McGill University and University of Toronto-led Media Ecosystem Observatory, looked at the election information environment.
Influencers were the most active in terms of frequency and volume of online posts and received the most engagement, said Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory.
“This is new to this election … materially different,” he told The Canadian Press.
Previously, media organizations and politicians got a very large amount of online engagement and were able to anchor the conversation though frequent posts and news stories that would receive a lot of attention online, Bridgman said….