Online Experts: Credibility in the Age of Platforms and Influencer Culture

The development of digital networks and social media has expanded and accelerated access to, and circulation of, information, reaching broader and more diverse publics than traditional media. The production and dissemination of expert knowledge is no longer the preserve of centralized, professional, and bureaucratized systems: news is produced and recirculated outside journalism; activism emerges beyond structured collective organizations; and scientific (and pseudo-scientific) knowledge reaches audiences through informal learning and entertainment formats. Across virtually all fields, these shifts have given voice and visibility to new intermediaries who operate according to specific platform logics, combining influencing, the cultivation of parasocial ties, and the platformization of labour. Understanding these dynamics has become increasingly urgent. This chapter presents the workshop “Online Experts: How Credibility Changes in the Digital Age”, developed for upper-secondary students to explore how cultural mediation, science communication and activism are reshaped on digital platforms. It opens with a conceptual framework that brings together crises of trust, disintermediation, and changing regimes of visibility, focusing on how reputation and celebrity are produced in contemporary media environments. It then details the classroom implementation, specifying learning goals, the forms of literacy involved, and how the workshop can be replicated. The activity starts from students’ own definitions of a “reliable source”: participants map the figures they recognise as experts, select controversial topics, and assemble sets of sources considered credible for opposing positions. The workshop concludes with a structured debate and a guided discussion on communicative style, intended publics, platform strategies, and the implicit or explicit economies that sustain visibility.