The next presenter in this session at the 2026 International Communication Association conference in Cape Town is Siyu Zhang, whose focus is on political livestreaming. Such livestreams typically consist of the live video itself, alongside a live chat feed; some platforms also provide ‘super chat’ message functionalities which receive greater visibility and may also be picked up by the influencer themselves during the livestream.
Influencers themselves may signal their political identity through visible paraphernalia, express identity through their background settings, show relevant recent chat messages, and call for donations. Such monetary participation by audiences captures a behaviour that other metrics do not. It is related to attention, but not simply reducible to it.
Livestreaming is different from other forms of influencer activity because of its liveness; it exists as a shared moment with audiences, producing the signal is costly and irreversible, the content is pinned and therefore more visible, and monetisation is built directly into the stream. It needs to be studied as its own genre, therefore.
This study examined some 51 US YouTube influencer channels with 1,000 livestreams, exploring their trustworthiness and authenticity claims, expertise display, attractiveness and intimacy display, public recognition, and direct financial appeals. It correlated these with the apparent ideological positioning of these influencers, and examined the monetary outcomes produced by these influencers.
These livestreams were gathered via the YouTube API; some 381 produced financial revenue, while 639 didn’t. YouTube-famous rather than institutionally famous influencers produced greater revenue; audience size also mattered substantially, of course. Formal political and lifestyle influencers who were YouTube-famous produced broadly similar revenue per livestream (around US$85-87), while institutional fame resulted in considerably less revenue for both categories.
Direct financial requests and public recognition produced more willingness to pay, while trustworthiness claims and expertise displays produced less; attractiveness displays resulted in greater amounts of income. Public recognition had a greater effect for left-leaning than right-leaning influencers.
This shows a new dimension of online political engagement, and a move from mere audience intentions to actual financial support; it provides a new lens on political influencer studies.
