Social Influence of Celebrities and Social Factors Affecting it in Rasht

Due to the increasing growth of cyberspace and the development of online culture among the general Iranian public, it seems that new reference groups have been emerged that have a great impact on citizens because of their media-based activities. One of these new social groups is the celebrities who have emerged in Iranian society in recent years, especially since the 2000s. Celebrities are heavily dependent on the media, especially social media. They typically connect with their audience through the social networks Facebook, Twitter, Viber, Telegram, Instagram and WhatsApp. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors affecting the social influence of celebrities in Rasht. The research method was survey and data were collected by questionnaire Technique. The statistical population of the study consisted of all citizens of Rasht in 2010 from whom 400 people were selected by random sampling and multi-stage clusters. Findings showed that online lifestyle, social anomie, social identity and political trust affect the social influence of celebrities in Rasht. But the two variables of national identity and online lifestyle have a greater impact on the social influence of celebrities and were stable in different models of multiple regression