The findings, drawn from a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults 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 U.S. 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 - and have more than 100,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X or TikTok. They include people across the political spectrum, such as the progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen and conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, as well as non-partisan personalities like Chris Cillizza, a former CNN analyst who now runs his own newsletter.
The report found that news influencers posted mostly about politics and the election, followed by social issues like race and abortion and international events, such as the Israel-Hamas war. Most of them – 63% - are men and the majority – 77% - have no affiliation, or background, with a media organization. Pew said about half of the influencers it sampled did not express a clear political orientation. From the ones that did, slightly more of them identified as conservative than as liberal.
I don’t really understand this. If I’m reading news that’s shared here, does that count as getting my news from social media? It’s usually a post from a source, not just some random guy telling me stuff he made up. I get that there are people who talk about the news on the internet, but is that just with no reference to the actual news/source? What’s this breakdown in the definition of journalism? Do I live under a rock? What the fuck is going on here?
The focus is who is providing the news on social media, which is influencers … who often have a vested interest in passing off rumors and innuendo as actual news.