Johanna Arnesson

Johanna Arnesson serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Culture and Media Studies at Umeå University, specializing in critical intersections of politics, marketing, and digital media. Her institutional affiliation centers on socio-cultural perspectives within digital communication and organizational contexts.

Her research critically examines 'influencer politics' through multiple lenses: discursive struggles over authenticity in influencer collaborations, platform surveillance mechanisms in marketing, and socio-cultural dimensions of digital political communication. Current projects investigate how influencers engage in politics, how commercial partnerships become politicized by audiences, and the adoption of influencer tactics within political campaigns. She particularly explores gynaeopticism, intimacy commodification, and the role of authenticity labor in digital spaces, with significant emphasis on Swedish political contexts and platform-specific practices.

Analysis of her 2018-2025 publications reveals consistent thematic evolution toward political dimensions of influencer culture. Early work focused on ethical consumerism discourses, while recent research examines parasocial dynamics in elections, parliamentarian YouTube strategies, and Instagram debates during the COVID-19 pandemic. A dominant trend involves analyzing how digital platforms mediate political authenticity through influencer genres, with growing attention to crisis communication and ideological intermediation.