This systematic literature review examines the growing influence of social media influencers over traditional media in shaping public opinion. Analyzing 26 Scopus-indexed studies published between 2020 and 2025, the review finds that influencers build strong trust and engagement through parasocial relationships, emotional storytelling, and niche relevance, often outperforming traditional media in influencing attitudes and behavior. While influencers act as powerful cultural intermediaries in digital communication, the study also highlights ongoing challenges such as misinformation, ethical concerns, and commercialization, offering important implications for research, marketing practice, and media policy.

This study explores the relationship between journalistic background, content creation experience, and self-reported information literacy among global content creators. Based on an online survey of 500 content creators in eight languages around the world, the study explains whether journalistic training or experience in content creation influences perceived information literacy, while controlling for education and economic development of the country. Results indicate that both having a journalistic background and content creation experience significantly predict perceived information literacy, with education of creators as a significant covariate. Economic development (Global South vs. Global North) is not a significant factor. Grounded in Flavell’s metacognitive theory, the findings suggest that content creators gain confidence in evaluating information through having a journalistic background and content creator experience, even if their actual ability remains untested. The implications of perceived information literacy compared to actual practice in information checking and information literacy training based on metacognition are discussed.