Influencers con discapacidad física en Instagram: Funciones, visibilidad y colaboración empresarial

e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 1 Influencers with physical disabilities on Instagram: Features, visibility and business collaboration Mónica Bonilla-del-Río; Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez; Victoria García-Prieto Article received on May 10th 2022 Approved on September 14th 2022 Mónica Bonilla-del-Río https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2476-8922 Universidad de Huelva Campus del Carmen Av. del Tres de Marzo, 3 21007 Huelva, Spain [email protected] Abstract In the digital world, social media have become important for people with disabilities in terms of communication and visibility. They have also become the ideal place for activism, as they allow the self-representation of disability by the content creators themselves. This social group, traditionally segregated and discriminated against, has seen in these platforms a tool to promote social inclusion and confront the dominant discourse. This paper explores the social media Instagram as a space for communication and visibility of instagrammers with disabilities from Europe and Latin America. The main objective of the research is to analyse the publications of Spanish-speaking influencers with physical disabilities to establish if there are similar characteristics or if there are significant differences in the uses they make of Instagram’s functions and how disability is represented in their profiles. Through quantitative, descriptive, and statistical research, a content analysis was carried out of 400 publications corresponding to 10 Instagram profiles, all of them of microinfluencers and macroinfluencers with physical disabilities who had different types of business collaborations. The results show that disability is visible in 85% of the publications, whether in the photos or videos shared, in the text of the post, hashtags or emoticons, although it predominates to a greater extent in audiovisual content. In advertising, mentions or tags of brands stand out, much more than paid collaboration, which appears as a minority compared to other forms of promotion. The degree of influence is decisive for interactions in the form of likes and views per video or reels. Finally, the use of hashtags on inclusion and social awareness reinforces the importance of these platforms for the social integration of people with disabilities. Keywords Social media; Social networks; Instagram; instagrammers; Influencers; Physical Disability; People with disabilities; Accessibility; Inclusion; Content analysis; Brands; Influencer marketing. Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez * https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9061-8482 Universidad de Sevilla Facultad de Comunicación Américo Vespucio, 27 41092 Sevilla, Spain [email protected] Recommended citation: Bonilla-del-Río, Mónica; Figuereo-Benítez, Juan C.; García-Prieto, Victoria (2022). “Influencers with physical disabilities on Instagram: Features, visibility and business collaboration”. Profesional de la información, v. 31, n. 6, e310612. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.nov.12 Nota: Este artículo se puede leer en español en: https://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EPI/article/view/86995 Victoria García-Prieto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4973-7583 Universidad de Sevilla Facultad de Comunicación Américo Vespucio, 27 41092 Sevilla, Spain [email protected] Mónica Bonilla-del-Río; Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez; Victoria García-Prieto e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 2 Funding This work is conducted within the framework of de Euro-American Network of Researchers (Alfamed), with the support of the R+D+i project entitled “Youtubers and Instagrammers: Media competence in emerging prosumers” under code RTI2018-093303-B-I00, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the R+D+i project (2020-2022) entitled “Instagrammers and youtubers for the transmedia empowerment of the Andalusian citizenry. Media literacy of the instatubers,” with code P18-RT-756, financed by the Government of Andalusia, in the 2018 call for tenders (Andalusian Plan for Research, Development, and Innovation, 2020) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The author Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez is the beneficiary of a pre-doctoral contract PIF funded by the VI PPIT-US (Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Sevilla), within the framework of the research group ‘Estructura, Historia y Contenidos de la Comunicación’ (Official PAIDI Code HUM-618) at the University of Seville. 1. Introduction Online social platforms are an ideal space for virtual contact between people and groups with similar habits and interests. Ibáñez-Cubillas, Díaz-Martín, and Pérez-Torregrosa (2017) state that social networks provide the public with a sense of closeness that breaks down barriers of idiosyncrasy, culture, or language, enhancing inherent human socialization. Ladogina et al. (2020) recognize that social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, or TikTok incorporate a dynamism in communication processes that immerse the user in new realities. With the advent of these virtualities, forms of consumption have changed from an analog to a digital model of practice and behavior, transforming user attitudes (González-Carrión; Aguaded, 2020). In this regard, Hung et al. (2019) speak of a world 2.0 with increasingly heterogeneous demands, and to which individual and industrial content creators must respond with acumen. This study focuses specifically on the social network Instagram, which is noteworthy for its ability to establish interactions and communities compared with other platforms (Arora et al., 2019; Casaló; Flavián; Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2020). This has encouraged its use by influencers and companies that collaborate to carry out advertising and marketing campaigns through social networks. The main objective of this research is to analyze the posts of Spanish-speaking influencers with physical disabilities to establish whether they exhibit similar characteristics or significant differences in how they use the features of Instagram and how disability is represented on their profiles. This study is important because research on disability and media literacy is scarce and does not analyze the accessibility and use of ICTs by the collective, which implies a lack of visibility and representation of people with disabilities (Bonilla-Del-Río; Valor-Rodríguez; García-Ruiz, 2018; Prefasi et al., 2010). Therefore, there is a need for more studies that focus on a group that is usually ignored in the research carried out in this area (Gutiérrez-Recacha; Martorell-Cafranga, 2011; Samaniego et al., 2012). Social networks such as Instagram allow content creators with disabilities to show their interests, participate in the digital environment, and interact with their audience, which facilitates a decrease in barriers and stereotypes and favors their collective empowerment. Likewise, a key feature that differentiates influencers is the monetization of their social media profiles through marketing collaborations with companies (Kay; Mulcahy; Parkinson, 2020). These collaborations can occur directly with monetary compensation as well as indirectly through free products, which they must promote or give away (Hwang; Jeong, 2016). This study has focused on the analysis of Instagram profiles that, in addition to being placed on the scale of micro- or macro-influencers, have had direct or indirect collaborations and that therefore monetize their profile. This issue is considered an essential condition for the study because, as previous works have shown (Foster; Pettinicchio, 2021), social networks allow for an approach and visibility of disability that promote the value of diversity and foster social inclusion. On the basis of this premise, this study focuses on profiles that have not only achieved this visibility on Instagram, but also captured the attention of brands and even established collaborations with them. At the same time, this reinforces the consideration that the demand for diversity in social networks is not just an altruistic manifestation of profiles of influencers with disabilities, but that it is taken into account by the business sphere and publicly manifested on the social network in the form of collaboration. 2. Theoretical framework 2.1. Social networks and visibility of disability The recognition of diversity and social inclusion are fundamental issues on which today’s democracies are based. In the case of people with disabilities who are traditionally and historically discriminated against, the objectives of full participation and social inclusion include representation in and accessibility to communicative environments of all kinds as a necessary condition for people with disabilities to fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms (UN, 2006). Influencers with physical disabilities on Instagram: Features, visibility and business collaboration e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 3 Nowadays, social networks have become part of the communicative environment and have become a space that favors virtual contact between people and groups with similar habits and interests. Social relations with the peer group and the search for autonomy and freedom are established as priorities in which leisure acquires a fundamental role (Codina; Pestana; Stebbins, 2017). Along these lines, among the most prominent reasons for the use of social networks by people with disabilities are communication with friends and entertainment (Bonilla-del-Río; Sánchez-Calero, 2022). These platforms encourage users to produce and share their own content, as well as to interact with and disseminate the content of others (Aguaded; Jaramillo-Dent; Delgado-Ponce, 2021), which represents a real transformation of the communicative processes. In this way, users become prosumers, constructing their identities in the network and sharing interests that highlight their presence and protagonism through self-representation and self-exhibition (Pérez-Daza, 2021). Social networks, as highlighted by Durante (2011), allow users the possibility of constructing, at least in part, their personal identity in a way that is different from what happens in physical reality. Therefore, the information that is transmitted and shared may be influenced, among other factors, by the user’s self-confidence and self-concept, by the decision they make concerning the spheres of their life they wish to share, by the importance they give to privacy, or by the search for popularity (Durante, 2011). In this sense, social networks offer the opportunity for people with disabilities to control how and when they disclose information about their disability on these digital platforms, since sometimes the stigma associated with physical disability generates barriers for this group in the consolidation of meaningful friendships (Furr; Carreiro; McArthur, 2017). According to Bassey et al. (2021), social networks foster social contact of the collective and promote visibility and social awareness of disability, as well as communication, exchange, and activism (Ellis; Kent, 2016). These platforms enable people with disabilities to gain positive experiences in terms of social identity and self-esteem development, entertainment, friendship, and enjoyment (Caton; Chapman, 2016). In fact, digital inclusion can become the engine that leads to the social inclusion of people with disabilities, and the digital economy and entrepreneurship, through content creation, present opportunities for empowerment (Johnson, 2019). Social networks give activists belonging to groups at risk of social exclusion multiple opportunities for the construction of alternative narratives that challenge the dominant discourse and generate new representations (Moors, 2019; Bitman, 2021). These resources therefore enable people with disabilities to foster their digital participation, social inclusion (Bayor et al., 2018), and community integration (Snethen; Zook, 2016). One of the goals of content creators with disabilities is thus to influence legislators and journalists (Trevisan, 2017). However, there are studies that talk about how, despite their potential, social networks have proven to be inaccessible and have discriminatory attitudes toward people with disabilities (Ellis; Kent, 2016). These platforms make it so that disability activists must work harder to achieve their goals (Bitman, 2021). This is because they have to become a profitable niche market in the economic dynamics of the social networks themselves to promote their accessibility, visibility, and impact, which other groups achieve more easily. 2.2. Physical disability Currently, approximately 15% of the population worldwide has some type of disability (World Health Organization, 2021), a figure that is increasing mainly owing to aging populations and the prevalence of chronic ailments. According to the World Health Organization (2001), the term disability “encompasses impairments, activity limitations, or participation restrictions”, and is a “complex phenomenon that reflects an interaction between the characteristics of the human organism and the characteristics of the society in which it lives” [“fenómeno complejo que refleja una interacción entre las características del organismo humano y las características de la sociedad en la que vive”] (Hermida-Ayala; Mateos-Borregón; Olalla-Vizcaino, 2010). On the basis of Royal Decree 1971/1999 of December 23, 1999, regarding the procedure for the recognition, declaration, and qualification of the degree of disability, the Spanish State Representative Platform of Persons with Physical Disabilities (Predif, n/d) proposes a classification of disabilities into three large groups: (1) Physical disabilities (related to the body, limbs, and organs in general), (2) sensory disabilities (originating in the visual or auditory system and possibly affecting the throat and language-related structures), and (3) psychic disabilities (related to intellectual and mental health disabilities). Physical disability is that which affects the locomotor system, especially the limbs, resulting in an impairment caused by the physical condition of the person that prevents them from moving with full functionality of their motor system in a permanent and irreversible manner (Observatori de la Discapacitat Física, n.d.). The majority of people with physical disabilities (around 80%) acquire the disability after birth, either due to common conditions or an accident, while a smaller percentage of them become disabled during pregnancy. This disability can be reflected by the decrease or lack of coordination of movement from disorders in muscle tone or balance (Predif, n/d). The recognition of diversity and social inclusion are fundamental issues on which today’s democracies are based Mónica Bonilla-del-Río; Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez; Victoria García-Prieto e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 4 In their relationship with social networks, several studies show the motivation of people with physical or motor disabilities, especially young people, to expand their personal relationships and improve their social skills, which is also connected to the social inclusion potential of these platforms (Suriá-Martínez, 2015). In fact, among the various types of disability, it is people with motor disabilities who show the highest perception of support in social networks (Suriá-Mar- tínez, 2017) and their presence and representation compared with other types of disability is emphasized (Shpigelman; Gill, 2014). Finally, studies such as those by Magee (2012) highlight how people with severe physical or motor disabilities who need personal assistance to use social networks find the privacy of their communications limited, hence the importance of the accessibility of these platforms and the implementation of a design for all people. 2.3. Instagram, types of influencers, and monetization This study focuses on the social network Instagram, which stands out for building leadership profiles, for its inherently visual nature, and for its ability to convey trends (Casaló; Flavián; Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2020). Visual impression and content expansion, the primordial basis of Instagram, reveal the population’s remarkable interest at a global level in storytelling through imagery (Hernández; Hernández, 2018). According to Rojas-Torrijos and Panal-Prior (2017), Instagram has features shared with other platforms such as Facebook, as well as some of its own. These include the hashtag, which groups content by tags and themes and facilitates the search for topics, users, and interactions such as likes or comments, which allow for feedback and opinions from followers to be counted on the basis of the interest aroused by the content shared. Another feature is the text that accompanies the audiovisual content, which allows users to describe their post or provide the information they consider appropriate. Since its creation, the features of Instagram’s have been evolving, including filters, emojis, mentions, and new formats such as stories, videos, or reels, and even the “paid collaboration” features, which promotes collaboration between brands and content creators, among others. Similarly, their ability to establish interactions and communities (Casaló; Flavián; Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2020) has encouraged their use in influencer marketing. Craig (2019) believes that content creators are motivated by an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to generate a brand of their own. These are ordinary users who accumulate a “relatively large” number of followers with whom they share personal stories, and they end up monetizing their content by integrating advertising and opinions (Abidin, 2016). For Ki and Kim (2019), influencers aim to strengthen relationships between the captive communities that follow them and the companies or brands that hire them. However, this reality does not always translate into contracts that seek to close sales, but also to the improvement or modification of the image of a brand, organization, product, or service (Mateus; León; Núñez-Alberca, 2022). Influencers are figures with great fame and power (Falla-Rubio, 2019) who gain followers and reputation on the basis of their personality, which characterizes them in their social networks. The power of recommendation and influence on social networks is very effective, and this fact has not gone unnoticed by brands and companies (Scolari, 2007). In a globalized world, being able to hide ulterior motives without being discovered is highly unlikely. Therefore, companies must exercise extreme caution when combining their advertising and marketing interests with users’ own interests, especially if social networks come into play, always taking care not to cross the limits set by legality and ethics (Castelló-Martínez; Del-Pino, 2015). However, the design of influencer marketing actions must be understood as part of the brand’s integral communication strategy in an era in which advertising has to be transmedia and multidisciplinary (Jenkins; Ford; Green, 2015). Undoubtedly, influencers are characterized by accumulating a large, albeit variable, number of followers (Casaló; Flavián; Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2020; Gottbrecht, 2016). However, studies such as those by Djafarova and Rushworth (2017) have shown how Instagram users tend to trust influencers with a modest number of followers more than those with a larger number. In fact, recent work proposes that the number of followers can even reduce follower engagement (Tafesse; Wood, 2021). According to Alassani and Göretz (2019), the categories of influencers can be classified as follows: 1. Mega-influencer: Those considered to be celebrities; that is, people recognized for their talent such as artists and actors, among others, and who also appear in different media. These influencers have 1,000,000 or more followers. 2. Macro-influencer: These are experts, such as journalists, bloggers, and professionals. Their community ranges from 100,000 to 999,999 followers. 3. Micro-influencer: They are ordinary consumers whose influence is based on experience with brands and audiences and who have, on average, between 1,000 and 99,999 followers. The influencers in this group are also referred to as micro-celebrities (Marwick, 2015). 4. Nano-influencer: This group has a maximum number of 1,000 followers, so their reach is limited, although the level of engagement with their audience is high. This hierarchy is taken into account when monetizing the profiles and content shared by influencers, who have become the opinion leaders of the twenty-first century, with commercial brands relying on them to launch their messages (Rodrigo-Martín; Rodrigo-Martín; Muñoz-Sastre, 2021). Influencers with physical disabilities on Instagram: Features, visibility and business collaboration e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 5 The monetization of a profile is understood as the capacity to generate income by posting audiovisual content. For Castelló and Pino (2015), collaboration must be on a win–win basis so that both parties obtain some benefit, which is not always economic. While the brand is imbued with the credibility and trust that the influencer radiates, the influencer sees their work rewarded by strengthening their professional position and relevance (Martínez-Sanz; González-Fernández, 2018). Influencer marketing is based on the contact and connection that a company establishes with previously identified influencers to multiply the reach of their brand communication. This discipline merges corporate communication with advertising, bringing out the best of each to ultimately generate a bond with the user that ends up building loyalty (Castelló; Pino, 2015). 3. Objectives The main objective of this research is to analyze the posts of Spanish-speaking influencers with physical disabilities to establish whether they exhibit similar characteristics or significant differences in how they use the features of Instagram and how disability is represented on their profiles. Specifically, this main goal is broken down into the following distinct objectives: O1: To examine how influencers with disabilities who create content on Instagram use Instagram on the basis of their degree of influence. O2: To test whether there are differences in terms of gender in regard to the use of Instagram by influencers with disabilities. O3: To analyze the collaborations that influencers with disabilities make with brands on Instagram. O4: To study the self-representation of disability and the accessibility of content created by influencers. 4. Methodology 4.1. Sample For this research, a content analysis of 10 Instagram profiles was carried out, all of them of Spanish-speaking influencers with physical disabilities who had business collaborations. For the design of the research, the selection of the sample, and the analysis tool, the previous literature, together with the application of the walkthrough method, were taken as a reference, which made it possible to adapt the method to the specific study. This walkthrough technique allows for the selection of a corpus of data on which to build a detailed analysis and serves as a basis for user-centered research (Light; Burgess; Duguay, 2018). The walkthrough method was performed prior to the analysis and in two phases: (1) a search for profiles in line with the objectives to define the object of study, and (2) a preliminary analysis of the 10 profiles analyzed to adapt the analysis tool to the characteristics of the selected influencers and the objectives of the study. In the first phase, we began the search for profiles managed by people with disabilities who met the requirements to be influencers and had some kind of commercial relationship with a brand, i.e., not only had followers, but also had some form of profitable position as influencers. This generic search was refined owing to the fact that the results obtained were dominated by profiles of influencers with physical disabilities who had monetized their status as influencers or, at the very least, had business support in other forms of collaboration, compared with other types of disabilities. Therefore, it was decided to limit the search to this type of profile. To cover a larger sample and taking into consideration the Spanish-speaking accounts found, international profiles with this characteristic were selected in an attempt to utilize a diverse sample in terms of the influencers’ geographic origin. Information was recorded for all the profiles found, as well as their characteristics (user name, gender, number of followers, nationality, collaboration with brands, and type of disability). A number of micro- and macro-influencers were established, and it was decided to balance the sample in terms of the influencers’ gender. The profiles that made up the final sample were selected on the basis of these criteria. Throughout this process, the objectives of the study were defined while also taking into account previous research. Likewise, the different profiles of the selected influencers were chosen by looking at their biographies, stories, highlights, and posts to decide which content was to be analyzed. Finally, the authors decided to focus the study exclusively on posts. During the second phase, once the 10 profiles had been selected and the tool had been designed, a preliminary analysis was carried out to assess its reliability. These processes are detailed in the following sections. The study focused on this type of disability. Ten Spanish-speaking profiles from European and Latin American countries –Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela– were selected. The profiles were balanced by gender: five men and five women. Similarly, considering the diversity of profiles according to the number of followers and interactions, five profiles of micro-influencers (1,001-99,999 followers) and five of macro-influencers (100,000-999,999 followers) were selected (Alassani; Göretz, 2019). Establishing profiles proportionally in terms of sex and degree of influence facilitates the comparison considering that the sample was also balanced in terms of the number of units of analysis per profile. It is significant that macro-influencers tend not to answer, while with micro-in- fluencers the trend is reversed Mónica Bonilla-del-Río; Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez; Victoria García-Prieto e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 6 Table 1. Data on the profiles included in the study as of February 28, 2022 Name User name Country Degree of influence Followers Cisco García @ciscogarve Spain Macro-influencer 301,308 Edna Serrano @ednaserranooficial Mexico Macro-influencer 297,917 Mauricio Riffo @tenientedan Chile Macro-influencer 209,169 Davide Morana @davidebartolomorana Italy Macro-influencer 101,846 Victoria Salcedo @vicco_salcedo Ecuador Macro-influencer 165,664 Dany @v_a_l_i_e_n_t_e Colombia Micro-influencer 53,527 Franwil Basulto @franwil_basulto Venezuela Micro-influencer 37,147 Alan @alanelruedas Spain Micro-influencer 26,833 Anabel Domínguez @nosoyloquevesoficial Spain Micro-influencer 16,224 Cami Herrera @cami.herrerar Chile Micro-influencer 14,543 For the selection of the sample, from all the content available on Instagram, we focused on the influencers’ posts, because of their ongoing presence on their profiles. We thus selected 40 posts from each profile. In total, the sample size was 400 units of analysis corresponding to posts published up to February 28, 2022. The posts from this date backwards were analyzed until the required number from each profile was reached. 4.2. Variables For the selection of the variables and categories to be analyzed, we began with tools used in previous literature (González- Romo; Iriarte-Aguirre, 2020; Romero-Coves; Carratalá-Martínez; Segarra-Saavedra, 2020; Villena-Alarcón; Fernández-To- rres, 2020), including adaptations to this study through digital ethnography. The combination of these criteria makes it possible to create a tool that is both solidly based and tailored to the specific study. The specific variables analyzed were: 1) post subject matter; 2) advertising; 3) audiovisual format; 4) interactions, e.g., likes, comments, and responses; 5) presence and company of the influencer; 6) accessibility; and 7) self-representation/visibility of the disability. In the variable “post subject matter,” the following categories were distinguished on the basis of previous literature (González-Romo; Iriarte-Aguirre, 2020) and the walkthrough method applied herein: 1) recommendation and promotion (includes those posts that recommend products and promote events, workshops, campaigns, or books); 2) disability (posts in which the main content is disability, the rights of the collective, barriers and adaptations, and claims, among others); 3) sports (covers all sports disciplines, training, guidelines, recommendations, etc.); 4) fashion and beauty (posts on outfits, clothing, footwear, skin care, makeup, beauty treatments, cleaning and exfoliation routines, or haircare, among others); 5) Covid-19 (posts dealing with the pandemic, infographics, prevention measures, treatments, symptoms, and general information); 6) humor (any post that has comic or humorous content); 7) personal (posts of a personal nature such as selfies, personal images, and/or moments from the influencer’s personal life); and 8) other (posts that cannot be categorized in the previous sections). In addition, “advertising” was measured as a separate variable, following the previous literature (González-Romo; Iriarte- Aguirre, 2020). This is owing to the importance of this issue for the study, as one of the requirements for the selection of the profiles was business collaboration of some kind on Instagram. Thus, we distinguish between: 1) explicit mention of “paid collaboration”; 2) the appearance of hashtags such as #ad, #publi, and #gift; and 3) mentions or tags of brands. In view of all the options offered by Instagram, the following categories were established in terms of “audiovisual format”: 1) photography; 2) video; 3) reel; Influencers with physical disabilities on Instagram: Features, visibility and business collaboration e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 7 4) photo carousel; 5) video carousel; and 6) mixed carousel Regarding “interactions” or engagement, the numbers of views, likes, and comments were analyzed. Compared with other research (Romero-Coves; Carratalá-Martínez; Segarra-Saavedra, 2020), we also studied whether influencers respond to at least some of the comments on their posts. We included the variable “content accessibility” in consideration of the fact that this is a study on profiles with disabilities and that, in the ethnographic analysis of Instagram in general and of the studied profiles in particular, some accounts that included captioning in their videos were found. Other audiovisual accessibility services were also added. In that case, we distinguish whether it is captioning, sign language, or alternative text (#alt). To analyze “self-representation/visibility of disability,” we observed whether it is present and, if so, whether it appears in: (1) audiovisual content, (2) text, (3) hashtags, and (4) emojis. We also collected data on the use of hashtags or emojis concerning disability to establish which are the most widespread and used. We also included the variable “Presence and company of the influencer in the post” (Romero-Coves; Carratalá-Mar- tínez; Segarra-Saavedra, 2020), which consisted of the following categories: (1) individual, (2) with a partner, (3) with family, (4) with friends, and (5) other. Finally, the variable “mentions or tags” measures whether the post mentions other accounts. In addition to all these quantitative variables that measure the frequency of occurrence of the items noted, the tool allowed the coder’s qualitative impressions to be collected. This addition of qualitative elements to content analysis has been supported for decades by Bardin (1986) and Krippendorff (1990). 4.3. Tool The tool was designed in Google Forms, and to measure the accuracy of the analysis sheet a test was performed including 10% of the total sample distributed among all the profiles analyzed. The test served to correct and increase the accuracy of the tool and, therefore, of the analysis itself. Finally, the Krippendorff alpha coefficient was calculated for reliability, suitable for studies involving more than two coders, on 10% of the total analyzed. Overall, the reliability was satisfactory, reaching 0.824 (Krippendorff, 2004). Once the content analysis and coding had been carried out, the information from the form was extracted in Excel format, transferring the data for each variable to the SPSS v.28.0 software. For data processing, we first performed the chi-squa- red and Cramer’s V correlation tests followed by Spearman’s correlation. The former was used to assess the probability of discrepancies on the basis of the null hypothesis, which states that there is no relationship and that the variables have complete independence (Flores-Peña, 2016), to test for the existence of significant differences between the observed and expected frequencies, calculating Cramer’s V correction to determine the intensity of relationship of nominal type variables (Vizcaíno-Verdú; Tirocchi, 2021). Spearman’s correlation made it possible to measure the association between two ordinal variables, or between one ordinal and another scale variable (Reguant-Álvarez; Vilà-Baños; Torrado-Fon- seca, 2018). 5. Results It is first essential to provide a brief description of the biographies of the profiles analyzed in order to then focus on the posts analyzed. Selecting only profiles of influencers with physical disabilities has allowed us to find parallels between them, such as the fact that half of them use the blue wheelchair emoji in their biography. The use of this specific emoji corresponds with the accounts of all the influencers who move in wheelchairs, with the exception of Cami Herrera. The rest of the profiles also show disability in their biography in various ways. A total of 50% of them tell their personal story about their disability in the featured stories. Davide Morana uses the text “amputee x4” and “adapted athletics.” Some profiles use motivational phrases such as “LimitsAreOnlyInOurMinds” [“LosLímitesSoloEstánEnEnNuestraMentes”] (Franwil Basulto), “If it doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you” (Victoria Salcedo), or “Even when life doesn’t end up being the party that you hoped for.... Never stop dancing!” [“Aunque la vida no resulte ser la fiesta que esperabas...¡Nunca dejes de bailar!”] (Dany). Although this information is sometimes ambiguous on its own, it is complemented by audiovisual content, such as their profile picture or featured stories, thus clarifying that it refers to the issue of disability. Like other influencers –with or without disabilities– they include other social networks in their biographical text, such as YouTube channels or link.tree links to all their sites (90%), information about their profession or area (50%), contact email for collaborations (40%), or links to their own products, such as books (20%). 5.1. Uses of Instagram based on the degree of influence of content creators The content analysis encompassing the 400 posts first analyzed the uses that influencers with disabilities make of the various features, then related these results to their degree of influence. Mónica Bonilla-del-Río; Juan C. Figuereo-Benítez; Victoria García-Prieto e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 8 Regarding the format types most used by the influencers (Figure 1), micro-influencers prefer to use the photo carousel (24.8%), followed by the mixed carousel (13.3%) and reels (10.5%), while macro-influencers share their content more frequently through mixed carousels (those that combine photos and videos) (22.8%) and reels (14.5%). In both cases, there is a low preference by the influencers to share their posts in video format (5%) or video carousels (1.3%). We also analyzed the interactions generated by the influencers, taking into account whether they are micro- or macro-influencers (Table 2). Table 2. Summary of case processing by degree of influence and interactions Cases Valid Lost Total N Percentaje N Percentaje N Percentaje Degree of influence – followers 400 100 0 0.0 400 100 Degree of influence – likes 380 95.0 20 5.0 400 100 Degree of influence – comments 400 100 0 0.0 400 100 Degree of influence – views 119 29.8 281 70.3 400 100 These results were calculated on the basis of the number of valid posts. In the case of “likes,” there are 20 missing data items owing to the fact that influencers activated the Instagram feature that allows hiding the number of “likes” so that the information is not visible. Likewise, in the case of the number of “views,” there are 281 posts in which this criterion did not apply, either because they are photographic posts or because the data were not available, as in the case of the videos that form part of the video carousels. However, as mentioned above, this type of post is very scarce (1.3%). The data show the existence of a positive and significant correlation in the number of followers, likes, and views (Table 3). In the first case, there is a highly significant correlation, which is explained by the fact that the number of followers determines the degree of influence, i.e., these data determine whether influencers are considered micro- or macro-influencers. There is also a moderate to strong association regarding the number of “likes” and views, as well as a weak correlation regarding the number of comments. Therefore, we can conclude the significance of the degree of influence of the influencers with respect to the interactions they generate from their followers. Table 4. Influencer interaction through comments according to their degree of influence Interaction in the comments Yes No Total Degree of influence Micro-influencer Count 153 47 200 % within degree of influence 76.5 23.5 100 % within interaction in the comments 74.6 24.4 100 % of total 38.3 11.7 50.0 Macro-influencer Count 52 148 200 % within degree of influence 26.0 74.0 100 % within interaction in the comments 25 75 100 % of total 13.0 37.0 50.0 Total Count 205 195 400 % of total 51.2 48.8 100 It is also relevant to highlight that both micro- and macro-influencers interact through comments, responding to their followers and taking advantage of this Instagram feature (Table 3). According to Figure 2, there is a balance between posts in which this interaction occurs (51.2%) and those in which it does not (48.8%). However, it is significant that Figure 1. Formats most commonly used according to the degree of influence Table 3. Spearman’s correlation between degree of influence and interactions Spearman’s correlation Value Sig. (bilateral) Followers 0.870 < 0.001 Likes 0.613 < 0.001 Comments 0.237 < 0.001 Views 0.705 < 0.001 Influencers with physical disabilities on Instagram: Features, visibility and business collaboration e310612 Profesional de la información, 2022, v. 31, n. 6. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 9 macro-influencers tend not to answer (37% of the occasions compared with 13% in which they do respond with at least some comment), while with micro-influencers the trend is reversed (in 38.3% of the cases they answer whereas in 11.7% they do not). 5.2. Uses of Instagram according to influencers’ gender The results were then analyzed according to the variables and gender (Table 5). Moderate significant associations were found in the following variables according to Cramer’s V and in ascending order: “accessible content,” “post format,” “disability visibility,” and “type of presence.” Regarding the latter two, it is worth noting the tendency of influencers of both genders to appear alone in their posts (n = 293; 73.25%), although, when accompanied, it is more common for men to appear with a member of their family (n = 21; 5.25%), with their partner (n = 11; 2.75%), with other people such as, for example, health specialists or work colleagues (n = 36; 9%), or with friends (n = 1; 0.25%), when compared with the data for women, which show that when they appear accompanied, the percentages are reduced, appearing to a greater extent with friends (n = 11; 2.75%), with family (n = 8; 2%), with their partner (n = 4; 1%), or with other people (n = 7%; 1.75%). Regarding the visibility of disability, for both genders there is a greater representation through the posts’ audiovisual content (men: n = 91; women: n = 87), as well as through the combination of several categories: audiovisual content, text of the post, hashtags, and/or emojis (men: n = 55; women: n = 89). Text is where the least representation of disability in isolation exists (men: n = 5; women: n = 0), along with hashtags (men: n = 0; women: n = 5), and followed by emoji (men: n = 8; women: n = 0). It is also significant that only 4.5% of the posts by women (n = 18) and 10.5% of the posts by men (n = 42) do not show their disability, meaning that their visibility is significant. Table 5. Variables in chi-squared test and Cramer’s V function in the Instagram posts in terms of gender Pearson’s chi-squared test Value df Asymptotic significance (bilateral) Cramer’s V Post format 20.093 4 <0.001 0.224 Influencer presence in the post 0.490 1 0.484 0.035 Type of presence 42.668 4 <0.001 0.327 Visibility of disability 35.709 5 <0.001 0.299 Accessible content 18.399 2 <0.001 0.214 Advertising 4.783 3 0.188 0.109 Interaction in the comments 12.986 1 <0.001 0.180 Mentions or tags 0.224 1 0.636 0.024 Note: df = degree of freedom On the other hand, it is essential in a study on influencers to highlight the number of views their content has (Table 6). There is a relationship between the number of followers and the average number of plays per video or reel, in which macro-influencers are in the lead. With respect to the gender variable, the cases of Victoria Salcedo and Dany should be emphasized, because they have an average number of views per video or reel higher than that of other male influencers with a larger number of followers, such as Mauricio Riffo. Table 6. Average views based on influencer and followers No. of views No. of videos/reels Average number of views Number of followers Cisco García 4,324,089 18 240,227 301,304 Davide Morana 3,457,435 15 230,495 192,992 Edna Serrano 3,211,526 19 169,028 296,385 Victoria Salcedo 560,105 6 93,351 163,065 Dany 412,009 6 68,668 53,600 Mauricio Riffo 1,090,358 17 64,139 212,333 Franwil Basulto 354,874 26 13,649 37,147 Cami Herrera 79,021 13 6,079 14,400 Alan 0 0 0 25,900 Anabel 0 0 0 16,000 Total (N)13,489,417 120 885,636 1,313,126 Figure 2. Interaction of influencers with followers based on their degree of influence Mónica Bonilla-del-Río; Juan C. 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WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health Servicio de traducciones al inglés http://www.elprofesionaldelainformacion.com/documentos/traducciones.pdf El profesional de la información Información: Isabel Olea [email protected]om