A new study published by the Pew Research Center shows that news influencers in the United States are playing a crucial role in the way people consume news. This is especially significant among young people, given that, according to the study, 40 percent of young Americans get their news from news influencers.
To understand why this study is significant, especially in terms of the 2024 election during which both Democrat and Republican news influencers were seemingly everywhere, we must first understand what a news influencer is, at least in the terms of this study.
The study refers to 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.” This means that the study looks exclusively at people rather than organizations that cover news.
X was a major player in the 2024 election
Social media continues to be a key player in US politics. Although this has been true for a while now, perhaps no election has seen this more than the 2024 election. The study published by the Pew Research Center found that X, formerly known as Twitter, was an incredibly powerful platform during the 2024 election cycle.
One of the reasons behind the importance of X during the 2024 election cycle, is the fact that 85 percent of news influencers are on the platform and post regularly.
Of course, these influencers are not exclusively on X, as the study also found that 50 percent of the influencers have an Instagram account, and 44 percent of news influencers have a YouTube account.
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%). https://t.co/SihgsQYzih pic.twitter.com/DoQ6BY6nY5
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) November 19, 2024
Therefore, X has seemingly become what owner Elon Musk aimed it to be, the world’s town square and a safe haven for free speech. Indeed, this has not happened without criticism, as there have been strong accusations of large news influencer accounts purposely spreading misinformation, with even Musk himself being accused of this practice during the 2024 election cycle.
The site has also been accused of favoring right-wing news influencers by altering user’s algorithms to prioritize right-wing leaning content. Some studies suggest this might be true, which would in turn raise questions about the ethics of branding X as a free speech safe haven while prioritizing a specific political agenda. Still, it must be said that there is no definitive proof this is the case.
The study shows news influencers are mostly right-leaning men
One of the main talking points after the 2024 election has been young men. They voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. One of the reasons behind Trump’s sweeping popularity in this demographic is the amount of right-leaning news influencers that young US men tend to consume.
A key indicator of this is the study’s finding that among its sample of news influencers, men outnumber women by a two-to-one margin, in which 63 percent of analyzed news influencers are men and 30 percent are women.
21% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media. This is especially common among younger adults: 37% of those ages 18 to 29 say they regularly get news from influencers. https://t.co/SihgsQYzih pic.twitter.com/gYFfPetWr7
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) November 18, 2024
It should be mentioned that the study also found that 27 percent of news influencers are right-leaning whereas only 21 percent are left-leaning. However, the majority of news influencers analyzed in the study do not have a clear political leaning.
It is worth remembering that leaning into news influencers who often produce right-wing content was a strategy reportedly engineered by Barron Trump for his father, and it has seemingly paid off in this election cycle.