More Americans getting political news from influencers: Pew

(CN) — One in five American adults now source their news primarily from influencers on social media sites, according to a Pew Research study published Monday.

And there’s an age divide: 37% of those under 30 say their political news comes from influencers, according to researchers who polled more than 10,658 Americans this summer in the midst of the 2024 election news cycle.

Coining the term “news influencers” for those “who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube,” Pew examined 500 journalists and independent content creators’ content and reviewed more than 28,000 social media accounts.

Collecting and examining social media posts from popular influencers during July and August, Pew researchers created a snapshot of how both Republicans and Democrats used content creators to publicize conventions, fundraisers, interviews, and political messages for their campaigns.

“Politics and the election are by far the most common topic for news influencers in 2024,” the researchers noted.

When posts talked about current events or civic issues, more than half, 55%, centered around politics, government or the presidential election, the Pew researchers found. Mentioned topics included the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the Democratic National Convention, the Republican National Convention and President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.

Most Americans lauded the accounts for helping them better understand events and issues via posts spanning the gamut of opinions to humor to breaking news.

“News influencers largely offer independent voices from outside the news media,” the researchers said.

The sentiment aligns with the group’s finding that 77% of news influencers have zero history working professionally for a news organization.

Pew also said that news influencers showed a preference for political affiliation. They tend to be men, with 27% labeling themselves themselves as “Republican, conservative or pro-Donald Trump” compared with 21% who labeled themselves “Democratic, liberal or pro-Kamala Harris.”

“Many Republicans have long believed that social media sites censor conservative viewpoints. But overall, more news influencers explicitly present a politically right-leaning orientation than a left-leaning one (27% vs. 21%) in their account bios, posts, websites or media coverage,” the Pew researchers said.

One social media site stood out above the rest as a mecca for conservative influencers.

“Influencers on Facebook are particularly likely to prominently express right-leaning views: There are three times as many explicitly conservative news influencers (39%) as liberal ones (13%) on the site,” Pew said.

Roughly half of influencers in the study did not clearly identify a political orientation.

The nonpartisan research center also noted a general trend Monday that men outnumbered women in their survey “by a roughly two-to-one margin” – 63% being men and just 30% being women.

The study found that most, 85%, of news influencers used the social media site X to spread messages while 50% used Instagram and 44% used YouTube. Facebook, Threads, and TikTok were the next most commonly used sites at 32%, 30% and 27%, respectively.

Examining the Chinese-owned social media company TikTok up close, Pew researchers found the smallest news influencer gender gap of any site: 50% men to 45% women. Politically, 25% of TikTok news influencers identified as right-leaning and 28% identified as left-leaning.

The posts examined for this study were collected from July 15-21, July 29-Aug. 4 and Aug. 19-25.