The findings, drawn from a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults and an analysis of social media posts posted this summer by influencers, provide an indication of how Americans consumed the news during the height of the U.S. presidential campaign that President-elect Donald Trump ultimately won.
The study examined accounts run by people who post and talk regularly about current events - including through podcasts and newsletters - and have more than 100,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X or TikTok. They include people across the political spectrum, such as the progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen and conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, as well as non-partisan personalities like Chris Cillizza, a former CNN analyst who now runs his own newsletter.
The report found that news influencers posted mostly about politics and the election, followed by social issues like race and abortion and international events, such as the Israel-Hamas war. Most of them – 63% - are men and the majority – 77% - have no affiliation, or background, with a media organization. Pew said about half of the influencers it sampled did not express a clear political orientation. From the ones that did, slightly more of them identified as conservative than as liberal.
for some reason, the article does not provide a link to the study it is describing. but i believe this is the study they are referring to.
one of the things i was most curious about is how the study defines “influencer”. the article does not mention this, but the study does:
so, the 20% figure does includes people who obtain their news by following journalists on youtube. however, the “key findings” section does explicitly mention that 77% of the examined news influencers have “no affiliation or background with a news organization.”
honestly, i thought all of the key findings were very interesting and that section was very accessible. here’s another highlight: the percentage is higher for adults under 30: 37% of adults under 30 get their news from an influencer.