About one in five adults in the U.S., especially younger Americans, say they regularly get their news from social media influencers, a report from Pew Research Center found.
For the report, 500 popular news influencers with at least 100,000 followers each from Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok or YouTube and the content they produced were examined during the summer. They included well-known names like the conservative Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, progressive podcaster Biran Tyler Cohen, Katie Couric and former CNN commentator Michael Cillizza.
The report found that there are minimal differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the percentage of Americans who get their news from news influencers. A higher percentage of Americans under 30, 37%, say they regularly get their news from social media influencers.
Most influencers, 85%, are found on X, but many also have platforms on other social media sites. Some 50% are found on Instagram and 44% on YouTube.
More news influencers, 27%, tend to lean right, than those on the other side of the spectrum, 21%. However, news influencers on TikTok tend to be more left-leaning, and the app has the smallest gender gap within news influencers.
A majority of the news influencers, 63%, are men, and they outnumber women by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio.
A large majority of them, 77%, have no prior affiliation or background with a news organization, while 23% have been employed in the news industry in some way. Those influencers affiliated with a news organization are less likely to be clear about their political orientation, the report found.
The most common topics that news influencers discussed on their platforms were the election and politics, 55%, followed by social issues like LGBTQ+ issues and abortion, 18%, and some 14% spoke about international issues, like the Israel-Hamas war.
The survey portion was conducted from July 15- Aug. 4 among 10,658 American adults.
Both political parties this election cycle made sure to tap into the clout that these news influencers have, particularly on the younger generation. This was the first year that influencers played a role in both the Republican and Democratic national conventions in Milwaukee and Chicago, respectively, over the summer.
“News influencers have emerged as one of the key alternatives to traditional outlets as a news and information source for a lot of people, especially younger folks,” Galen Stocking, senior computational social scientist at Pew Research Center, said in a statement. “And these influencers have really reached new levels of attention and prominence this year amid the presidential election.”
Besides normal sit-down interviews with news networks, both Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump made appearances on podcasts. Ms. Harris appeared on “Call Her Daddy” with host Alex Cooper, basketball podcast “All the Smoke” and “The Howard Stern Show,” among others.
Mr. Trump sat with Joe Rogan for “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Logan Paul on “Impaulsive,” and Mark Calaway for “Six Feet Under,” among others.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.