Twenty percent of Americans regularly turn to social media influencers for their news content on a regular basis, and the majority of social media influencers providing those stories have limited experience with a news organization, according to a report published by Pew Research on Monday.
The report found more social media news influencers identify as Republican, conservative or supporters of President-elect Donald Trump by a slight lead over those who identify as Democratic, progressive or supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris. The difference between the two is about 6 percentage points, with 21 percent of news influencers identifying as right-of-center.
The majority of social media news influencers are men (63 percent), and 77 percent have no affiliation with an established news organization — which might be why they’re more-favored by Americans to deliver them news free of perceived bias, commercialism or agenda.
The majority of Americans who get their news from social media influencers fall within the ages of 18 and 49 (63 percent), compared to older Americans who are more likely to trust traditional news platforms like radio, television, newspapers and news websites.
Among younger Americans, there is little difference between Republicans who get their news from social media versus Democrats, with Pew reporting their findings show an equal number consume news on social platforms.
“These Americans also say they get a variety of different types of information, from basic facts and opinions to funny posts and breaking news,” the Pew Research study found. “When it comes to opinions, most who see them say they are an even mix of opinions they agree and disagree with (61 percent), but far more say they mostly agree with what they see (30 percent) than mostly disagree (2 percent).”
Among news influencers, the majority of them post content to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with 85 percent of news social media influencers regularly distributing their content via that platform. That likely comes as no surprise: Compared to services like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, X’s algorithm has — until recently — been easy to pin down, with its strength being a real-time feed of curated posts that were traditionally displayed from recent to oldest.
That has shifted over the past few years, with new owner Elon Musk pulling various levers that have resulted in news feeds rearranging content based on an algorithm — one that, according to recent reports, prioritized and surfaced stories that were right-of-center. The Pew study was conducted before Bluesky, an alternative to X, surged in popularity after the 2024 presidential election was called for Trump.
While X’s algorithm now favors conservative-oriented news influencers, Pew found that news influencers on Facebook and Instagram are more likely to identify as right-of-center compared by a three-to-one margin compared to influencers who identify as left-of-center.
The Pew Research study is available to view by clicking or tapping here.
