Reframing Influencer Regulation: Moving Beyond a Commercial Approach to the Regulation of the Danish Influencer Industry

PhD defence by Sara Kepinska Meleschko

Assessment Committee

Professor Kristin Veel, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Research Professor Ole Marius Hylland, Telemark Research Institute, Norway
Associate Professor Louise Yung Nielsen, Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University

Supervisors

Professor Bjarki Valtýsson
Associate Professor Andreas Lindegaard Gregersen

Department

Department of Arts and Cultural Studies

Place

Building: 8B, Room: 8B.1.14, Karen Blixens Plads 16, 2300 København S

Email address to gain access to the thesis: meleschko@hum.ku.dk.
You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.
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Short description of the thesis

The thesis examines the regulatory debate surrounding influencers and influencer marketing in Denmark, focusing on the underlying assumptions that have guided the regulatory debate so far and how these complicate the formulation of a more effective regulatory framework. The thesis argues that influencers have been conceptualised as commercial actors subject only to marketing legislation, whilst children and adolescents have been conceptualised simply as passive and vulnerable consumers of influencer generated content in need of protection. This is explored throughout the thesis' four articles, and together they help illustrate its main argument: that the misreading of influencers and children and adolescents are inextricably linked, and that this has led to inadequate regulatory frameworks that only address part of the problem.