This thesis explores young Algerian women’s attitudes towards Algerian female social media influencers. Drawing upon academic literature about influencers, Islam, and Algeria and using a qualitative research approach, the study explores how followers understand and respond to influencers' self-representations, their dress and hijab practices, finally exploring the status of the hijab in three different Algerian cities.
The female Algerian influencers explored in this study are both veiled and unveiled. Algerian influencers are diverse and represent both modern and traditional religious lifestyles through their dress and hijab practices. While some adhere to religious Islamic dress by wearing a hijab, others adhere to secular dress habits. Veiled influencers practice diverse forms of hijab, including modern and Islamic. Modesty in unveiled influencers exists on a spectrum: while some wear clothes that fit with Islamic ideas about modesty, others wear less modest forms of clothing. My research examined young Algerian women’s attitudes toward these diverse dress and veiling practices.
My study combines semi-structured interviews with a qualitative content analysis of comments on influencers' YouTube and Instagram posts. The overarching finding of my research is that how influencers present themselves – and how their followers respond - is shaped by three interacting phenomena: a) the Algerian social environment; b) Islam and Islamic customs; and c) patriarchal norms. Followers’ attitudes towards influencers' self-representations, dress, and hijab practices are influenced by the Algerian social context. The features of Algerian society led to followers’ interpretations of the influencers' visibility, hi-jab, and dress through the lenses of Islam, traditions, and patriarchy. They are influenced by Islam, including the Islamic dress code. Finally, patriarchal roles also had an impact on how dress is interpreted and the position of women in society. The importance of each of these phenomena varies across the different aspects of my study.
My research contributes new knowledge to social media research by focusing on a part of the world that has hitherto been under-researched, namely Algeria. It also contributes to knowledge in audience research by understanding social media followers as audiences. It contributes to social media research by focusing on followers, an important group that is surprisingly often overlooked in social media research. Finally, it contributes an understanding of the interplay between religion, patriarchy, and national culture when it comes to women’s self-representations and how these get interpreted.
