Influencers can help guide your decisions on everything from food to fashion and now — news.
According to new data from the Pew Research Center, about 1 in 5 Americans get their news from influencers on social media. No, not organizations like Scripps News, but individual people.
Pew Research Center defined "news influencers" as people who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any platform. News influencers can be journalists who are or were affiliated with a news organization or independent content creators, Pew explained.
Most news influencers can be found on X, where Pew Research Center said 85% have a presence. Unfortunately, other studies have shown that's the platform where fake news and misinformation are most often spread.
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About 50% use Instagram and 44% are on YouTube, according to Pew's study.
Pew said a clear majority of news influencers are men and, although Republicans have long believed that social media sites censor conservative viewpoints, Pew said more news influencers explicitly present a politically right-leaning orientation than a left-leaning one (27% vs. 21%).
Most of these news influencers, 77%, do not have any affiliation or background with a news organization. However, 65% of Americans said news influencers have helped them better understand current events and civic issues.
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