A growing share of young Americans are getting their news from social media influencers rather than traditional outlets, a poll has showed.
About one in five adults, including a much higher share of adults under 30, told Pew Research Center they regularly get news from influencers on social media.
Pew Research surveyed 10,658 US adults from July 15 to August 4 and asked about whether they regularly get news from news influencers on social media.
Approximately 37 percent of those aged 18 to 29 said they get their news from news influencers. These were classified as individuals who post about current events and civic issues on social media and who have at least 100,000 followers on any of the platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube.
There were minimal differences between conservatives and liberals, with 21 percent of Republicans and 22 percent of Democrats reporting that they got their news from influencers.
Among Americans who get news from news influencers on social media, 65 percent said news influencers have helped them better understand current events and civic issues.
The findings, drawn from the survey 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 US 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.
They include people across the political spectrum, such as the progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen and the conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, as well as non-partisan personalities like Chris Cillizza, a former CNN analyst who now runs his own newsletter.
Far more of the news influencers in the Pew study have an account on X than any other platform with 85 percent on the site, compared with 50 percent who are on Instagram, the next-most popular site.
Slightly more news influencers explicitly identify as Republican, conservative or pro-Donald Trump, at approximately 27 percent, than Democratic, liberal or pro-Kamala Harris, at about 21 percent.
During the campaign both parties and presidential campaigns courted influencers, including creators who were not very political, highlighting the shift away from non-traditional sources.
The Republican and Democratic national conventions had credentialed influencers to cover their events this past summer.
Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with Alex Cooper for her ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast and talked a little Bay Area basketball with the fellows on ‘All the Smoke.’
Meanwhile, Trump hung out with the bros on the ‘Bussin’ With the Boys,’ ‘Flagrant’ and the popular podcaster Joe Rogan as part of a series of appearances targeting young male voters.
‘These influencers have really reached new levels of attention and prominence this year amid the presidential election,’ Galen Stocking, senior computational social scientist at Pew Research Center, said in a statement.
‘We thought it was really important to look at who is behind some of the most popular accounts – the ones that aren’t news organizations, but actual people.’
Seven in ten respondents said the news they get from news influencers is at least somewhat different from the news they get from other sources.
They reported getting a variety of different types of information, from basic facts and opinions to funny posts and breaking news.
However, only 31 percent of people said they feel a personal connection to a news influencer.