New intermediaries in the formation of tastes in the digital communication age: Research on the impact of influencers on individuals' tastes

In today's digital communication age, where the time individuals spend on social media platforms increases day by day; It is possible to say that people have become addicted to these platforms for various purposes and reasons, especially to get information, to be informed, to have fun, to spend their free time, and to satisfy their material and spiritual needs. Influencers on digital media platforms appear as important intermediaries in both creating, directing and meeting these goals and causes. This situation is seen as an important problem of the digital communication age and calls this position of influencers into question. This study focuses on the effects of digital media on individuals, based on the problem of media effects, which is an important research field in the communication sciences literature. In this context, the cultural intermediary position of influencers and their impact on individuals' tastes were investigated in the study, based on Lazarsfeld et al.'s concept of "opinion leader" and Bourdieu's concept of "cultural intermediaries". The study consists of four parts. First part; It consists of literature on digital age communication, social media and the cultural effects of media. Second part; The cultural tool provides a portable framework for transforming opinion leaders, influencers, and tastes. While the third chapter focuses on the research method, the fourth chapter covers the conduct of research and its evaluation. Mixed research method was used in the study. Survey technique was used in the quantitative part of the research; To determine whether influencers are an influence on individuals, Tam's (2020) "The Scale of Opinion Leadership of Social Media Influencers in the Eyes of Followers" was applied, and to understand the effect of influencers on individuals' likes, the Effects of Influencers on Followers' Likes Scale prepared by the author was applied. The data obtained from the survey forms were evaluated using the SPSS 25.0 program. The research sample consists of individuals living in 26 provinces selected from 12 regions capable of representing Turkey from the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TUIK) "Turkish Statistical Regional Units Classification" Level 1. In the qualitative part of the research, interview technique was used to reveal the influencer perception in individuals' minds and to strengthen the quantitative data obtained regarding the influence of influencers on individuals' tastes and to obtain more detailed information. In this context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 26 people from 17 provinces included in the research sample. Thematic analysis was conducted using the MAXQUDA 2024 program with the data obtained from the interview study. When the research findings are evaluated; It has been revealed that individuals in Turkey see influencers as cultural intermediaries according to their interests and are influenced by their likes. In addition, considering the diversity in digital media platforms and the increase in the number of influencers, it has been observed that the period of strong effects of the media continues with increasing intensity with digital media. Keywords: Digital Communication, Opinion Leader, Influencer, Cultural Mediator, Taste