Causal mechanism linking creator prominence and political discourse

Determine whether bringing political discourse into seemingly apolitical online spaces reduces most users’ influence within those spaces, or whether influential users are instead hesitant to discuss politics because doing so may risk their status within a particular community.

Background

The study finds that creators who are more central within a longitudinal public generally exhibit less discursive overlap with electoral and Black Lives Matter issue publics. The authors interpret this association as potentially reflecting a negative feedback loop between prominence in a community and willingness to produce political content.

The unresolved issue is the direction and mechanism of this relationship. Political discussion might reduce a creator’s influence, or influential creators might strategically avoid political discussion to protect their standing. Resolving this question would clarify how creator status and audience-related incentives shape political spillover into otherwise apolitical longitudinal publics.