Social justice as on-brand

Annabell, T. 2025. Social justice as on-brand. International Journal of Communication 19 , pp. 3020-3041.

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Abstract

As part of navigating the visibility logics of the creator economy, influencers may leverage their visibility to promote social justice by drawing attention to specific social causes and political issues. This article analyzes the 15 most-followed Dutch influencers on Instagram and TikTok to explore when and how social justice is invoked within the blurred boundaries between promotion and expression. Findings reveal the (1) visibility of social justice through brand alignment, (2) construction of platform relevance through temporal references and templates, and (3) divergent approaches to monetization. Social justice can be a narrative in monetized content, and monetization can serve as a vehicle for promoting social justice or remain entirely disconnected from it. Uniting these practices is the shared logic that social justice must align with the influencer as brand-whether articulated through organic content, where personal beliefs advance self-branding efforts, or through monetized content, where politicized themes intersect with commercial strategies-ultimately rendering social justice as “on-brand” for only some.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	University of Southern California
ISSN:	1932-8036
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 February 2026
Last Modified:	12 Feb 2026 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184722

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