News influencers lean right
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News influencers — people with at least 100,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube who regularly post about current events — are more likely to identify with the political right than the left, a new study from the Pew Knight Initiative found.
Why it matters: 1 in 5 Americans report getting their news from influencers, and 65% of them say these news influencers have helped shape their opinions on political, societal or global news.
What they're saying: "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," said Galen Stocking, senior computational social scientist at Pew Research Center.
- "And these influencers have really reached new levels of attention and prominence this year amid the presidential election."
How it works: The Pew Research Center examined more than 28,000 social media accounts to identify a sample of 500 news influencers and the content they produce across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.
- The report also includes a survey of 10,658 U.S. adults from July 15 - Aug. 4, 2024.
By the numbers: Male news influencers outnumber female news influencers 2 to 1, and while roughly half do not express a clear political slant, those that do are more likely to lean right (27%) than left (21%).
Zoom in: News influencers from both sides of the aisle are most likely to be found on X, where 85% have a presence, per the report.
- In a closer examination of the top five platforms — Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X — Pew found news influencers on Facebook are three times as likely to share conservative views (39%) than liberal ones (13%) across the platform.
TikTok, meanwhile, is the only site where left-leaning news influencers outnumber those on the right.
- TikTok also has the smallest gender gap, with 50% of news influencers identifying as men and 45% as women.
- On all other sites, men outnumber women by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio or more.
Reality check: While these influencers are creating content about politics and news, only 23% of them have a journalism background or are affiliated with a media organization.
- Those who work in news are less likely to express a clear political orientation than those who don't.
Yes but: The journalists who do explicitly identify with a political orientation tend to be right-leaning, with 25% saying they are conservative, Republican or pro-Trump, and 9% as liberal, Democratic, or pro-Harris or pro-Biden.
State of play: 96% of influencers who are affiliated with a news organization are active on X, while news influencers without experience and affiliation are more likely to use video-based platforms and monetize their content through subscriptions, donations or merchandise.
- Of note, 84% of news influencers on TikTok do not have journalism experience or work for a media outlet.
What to watch: The report implies that news influencers are looking for ways to expand their reach.
- Currently, about two-thirds of news influencers are on more than one social media site and 34% connect with their audiences through podcasts, while 22% write newsletters and 6% host a Discord channel or engage with other chat platforms.
More on Axios: Americans flock to TikTok for news
