Influencer culture and the changing face of sport and media

This crosscurrent explores how influencer culture, shaped by Generation Z and Alpha’s distinct media practices, is reshaping the commercial and cultural foundations of sport. Through recent empirical cases, we argue that a paradigmatic shift is underway in the sport–media nexus, wherein content untethered from elite athleticism can generate immense audiences and commercial outcomes by privileging personality, virality and platform-native entertainment. Drawing on theories of celebrity and influencer culture, we critically assess how this phenomenon destabilises traditional sporting authority and reorients fan engagement toward more fluid, personality-driven forms of global digital allegiance. We further analyse how participatory infrastructures and algorithmic visibility are reconfiguring the terms of legitimacy and value in contemporary sport. Rather than a fleeting disruption, we contend this signals a structural transformation in the production, circulation and consumption of sport content. From this interrogation, we propose a research agenda to explore the implications of this shift for sport’s social function, institutional power and position within platform capitalism. In turn, this crosscurrent contributes to broader debates in media and cultural studies around power, identity and the evolving dynamics of digitally mediated entertainment.