Content creator and follower relations in digital culture: Constructing role models

This study examines emerging forms of individual influence produced through the relationship between content creators and their followers in digital culture. Using a quantitative survey design, data were collected from 587 followers of five content creators. The findings indicate that followers internalize the influence of content creators not through formal hierarchies, but through everyday interactions and processes of identification. The role model function attributed to content creators also contributes to the construction of latent authority. The scale was designed to measure how followers perceive content creators through the dimensions of sincerity, interaction, trustworthiness, expertise, similarity, role model perception, and latent authority. Following content validity procedures, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test construct validity. The exploratory factor analysis produced a seven-factor structure with 25 items, and the reliability coefficient was .800. In the confirmatory factor analysis, all items loaded above .40, and the scale showed acceptable model fit indices, including χ²/df = 2.086, GFI = .876, CFI = .896, and RMSEA = .060. The confirmatory factor analysis reliability coefficient was .811, indicating very good internal consistency. The findings suggest that the scale is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing followers’ role model perceptions of content creators and their latent authority in digital culture.