How audiences navigate the tension between influencer professionalisation and authenticity: an exploration from the context of Multi-Channel Network disclosure

The growing professionalisation of influencers has intensified tensions surrounding authenticity, yet little is known about how audiences perceive and respond to it. This study examines how audiences interpret professionalisation through organisational cues and navigate the authenticity tensions these cues evoke, taking the Multi-Channel Network disclosure on Chinese social media as an empirical case. Based on 20 in-depth interviews, findings show that audiences interpret the disclosure as a symbol of professionalisation, which implies technical expertise and corporatised operation. Using a multidimensional authenticity framework, professionalisation is perceived to diminish influencers’ intrinsic motivation and honesty. However, rather than rejecting professionalised influencers, audiences negotiate authenticity loss by normalising professionalisation, setting boundaries of acceptance, and prioritising content usefulness and entertainment. These negotiation practices enable audiences to reconcile tensions between professionalisation and authenticity and sustain engagement with professionalised influencers.