With people spending more and more time on their phones, news influencers — which the Pew Research Center defines as creators with over 100,000 followers who regularly post about current events and civic issues — have become the gateway for the average American to consume news.
A new Pew study, which was released on Nov. 18, is offering insights into the growing news influencer ecosystem. It examined a sample of 500 news influencer accounts across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube, as well as 10,658 Americans.
What were the results of the Pew Research Study on news influencers?
According to the survey, one in five (21%) US adults regularly get news from social media. For 18-29 year olds, this number was even higher, with 37% saying that they usually get their news from news influencers.
When you think of news influencers, you might think of TikTok, but according to Pew, news influencers are most likely to be found on X. Pew found that 85% of news influencers were on X, while only 27% had a TikTok account. Only 50% were on Instagram, the second most popular platform besides X.
Another especially striking find following the recent election is that more news influencers identify as right-wing (27%) than left-wing (21%). News influencers were also found to be more predominantly male (63%) than female (only 30%).
Still, despite potential political biases, these news influencers seem to have grassroots beginnings. Pew reports that 77% of them have no background or affiliation with a news organization. With no fact-checking or ethics training for non-professional journalists, this could be contributing to the rise of misinformation online.
