One in five Americans get their news from influencers

One in five Americans say they regularly get news from influencers, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

The report examines the influence of influencers and journalists who publish news on networks in the United States of America (USA).

The survey included 500 influencers and journalists who publish news on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Xu and YouTube, each with at least one hundred thousand followers.

“News influencers” are mostly found on social network X – 85 percent of them, but they are also present on other networks, such as Instagram (50%) and YouTube (44%). More of them explicitly identify themselves as Republicans, conservatives, or support Donald Trump (27%) than as Democrats, liberals, or support Kamala Harris (21%). Most of these influencers are men (63%), and 77 percent of them are not connected to the media.

Media-affiliated influencers are less likely to emphasize their political orientation or tie themselves to political or social causes, such as highlighting support for the Palestinians or Ukrainians or stating that they are against abortion on their accounts.

“About two-thirds of those who have worked for a news organization (64 percent) do not express a clear political orientation on their social media profiles, posts, personal websites, or media coverage, compared to 44 percent of those who have no such experience,” it said. in the report.

One in five US adults (21%) say they regularly get their news from social media influencers, according to a survey of 10,658 Americans in the summer of 2024. Younger Americans are more likely to get their news from social media first , and it is even more likely that they will get news from influencers. About 40 percent of respondents under the age of 30 regularly receive news from influencers.

Americans who often follow “News influencers” they say that their content is useful and unique to them. About 65 percent of those who regularly get news from influencers said they help them better understand current events and civic issues, and more than 70 percent said the news they get from influencers is at least slightly different from the news they get from other sources. Also, 31 percent of respondents said that they feel a personal connection with influencers.

Respondents said they get a variety of information from the influencers they follow, from basic facts and opinions to funny posts and breaking news.

Some of the X news influencers Pew surveyed are journalists, including Punchbowl’s John Bresnahan, Axios business editor Dan Primack, Breitbart News correspondent Kristina Wong, The Free Press editor Bari Weiss, The Dispatch editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg and reporter Arizona Sun Times Rachel Alexander.

Across all five social networks, the majority of influencers who post news (59 percent) monetize their followers in some way, including offering subscriptions, collecting donations, or selling products. That number is highest on YouTube, where 80 percent of influencers seek financial support from their audience. This includes 68 percent of YouTube news influencers who offer subscriptions that give users access to paid content.

Different topics were the focus of discussion on the platforms, and the war between Israel and Hamas, for example, was discussed more on Instagram than on any other network (14 percent Instagram, eight percent X). US politics was a less common topic on Instagram than other networks. Politics and elections were discussed on YouTube (68 percent).

The entire report is available on the website Pew Research.

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