The Era of the American News Influencer

On Monday, Pew Research published the results from a comprehensive project about news influencers and American media, raising several questions about how we consume our information and the role of bias in journalism.

Pew defined “news influencers” as “individuals 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. News influencers can be journalists who are or were affiliated with a news organization or independent content creators, but they must be people and not organizations.”

The project examined what 500 popular news influencers have produced, based on a review of more than 28,000 social media accounts. It also conducted a survey of Americans to ask them about how they get their news from these influencers.

The study shared five key takeaways:

• About one-in-five Americans —including a much higher share of adults under 30 (37%)— say they regularly get news from influencers on social media.

• News influencers are most likely to be found on the social media site X, where 85% have a presence. But many also are on other social media sites, such as Instagram (where 50% have an account) and YouTube (44%).

• Slightly more news influencers explicitly identify as Republican, conservative or pro-Donald Trump (27% of news influencers) than Democratic, liberal or pro-Kamala Harris (21%).

• A clear majority of news influencers are men (63%).

• Most (77%) have no affiliation or background with a news organization.

As expected, older U.S. adults tend not to get news from influencers.

It’s not even close as to how many news influencers use X (Twitter).

The majority of news influencers explicitly express a political orientation.

Still, the majority of news influencers tied to a news organization won’t explicitly express a political orientation.

TikTok is the only social media platform where the gender gap is minimal.

Politics dominated the news influencer summer content cycle.

You can access the full report here.

Welcome to the future of information, news, and journalism—it's already here. Now, more than ever, news consumers must use critical thinking to distinguish credible, trustworthy information from fleeting social media trends.

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About the Author

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder and interim publisher of The Latino Newsletter.

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