News Influencers – People who regularly post about current and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on either Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), or YouTube. Political Orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is someone who publicly identifies themselves as a Republican or conservative, or that they support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Left-wing news influencers are those who identify as Democrats, liberals or progressives, or support Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election (or support President Joe Biden before withdrawing from the race). Refers to a person who publicly declares that he or she has done so. This information was found in bios, profile photos, banner images, pinned and recent posts on influencers’ social media accounts, personal websites and professional pages, and prominent media coverage. Values and Identity – Language and images in an influencer’s bio, profile photo, banner image, or pinned post on an influencer’s social media account that express a particular belief or identity. Media Affiliation – Influencers with this affiliation are people who currently or previously work for a media organization, as well as freelancers who regularly contribute to the media. A news organization is a news organization with a staff and multiple bylines. The researchers found that influencers came from these backgrounds, regardless of the outlet’s political orientation, audience size, or primary publication method (digital, television, print, etc.) . Major social media sites – The five major sites we investigated were selected based on viewership and presence of discussion of the news: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.
What is a news influencer?
For this study, to refer to individuals who regularly post about current and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on either Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), or YouTube. We use the term “news influencer.” . News influencers include journalists and independent content creators who are or have been affiliated with news organizations, but must be individuals and not organizations.
For more information on how to identify news influencers, please see our methodology.
Once they had a sample of 500 popular news influencers to analyze, the researchers combed through each account to characterize who these influencers were. This chapter explores news influencers’ gender, political orientation, expression of particular values, and
identity.
We also looked at whether each influencer was affiliated with or affiliated with a news organization. More details are provided in Chapter 4. It was not possible to code other attributes of news influencers, such as race, ethnicity, or age.
sex
The study shows a large gender gap among news influencers. Almost two-thirds (63%) of news influencers are male, nearly double the proportion of women (30%). A small number (less than 1%) identify as non-binary in their online profiles. (See methodology for details on how researchers coded the gender of news influencers.)
The gender gap among news influencers exists on most major social media sites, with men outnumbering women by about 2-to-1 on YouTube, Facebook, X, and Instagram. For example, 67% of news influencers on Facebook are men, compared to 30% women.
But on TikTok, the gender gap is much smaller, with half of the news influencers on the site being male and 45% female.
political orientation
Slightly more news influencers clearly identify with the political right than with the left. Approximately half (52%) of the news influencers surveyed in this study expressed their political party affiliation, political ideology, and support for presidential candidates in their social media profiles, posts, personal and professional websites, or media coverage. has publicly announced his political orientation.
The researchers also considered other specific keywords and groups. For example, someone with “MAGA” in their account profile is coded as right-wing, while someone who says they are “progressive” is coded as left-wing. Left-wing news influencers include “progressive political host” Brian Tyler Cohen and Under the Desk News’ V. Spehar, while right-wing news influencers include radio host and They include YouTuber Dan Bongino and podcaster Ben Shapiro.
Of these influencers, a higher percentage (27% of all news influencers) said they were Republicans, conservatives, or supporters of Donald Trump, compared to Democrats, liberals, or supporters of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. Slightly more said they were supporters (21%). Another 3% of news influencers have other political orientations, such as independents or libertarians.
Just as popular news influencers have a more balanced gender balance, TikTok also has the most even balance of news influencers who clearly identify as either the political left or the right, with 28 % identify as liberal, progressive, or Democrat, and 25% identify as conservative or Democrat. Republican.
On every other major social media site, there are more news influencers who identify as right-wing than left-wing. This difference is particularly stark on Facebook, where nearly four in ten (39%) news influencers identify as right-wing, three times as many as the left-wing (13%). I am.
values and identity
Researchers also assessed news influencers’ social media account profiles for additional political stances and personal identities by examining their banner images, profile photos, and bios.
In such spaces, it is difficult to distinguish between value and identity. For example, a rainbow flag could be a statement of support for LGBTQ+ rights or a declaration of the influencer’s LGBTQ+ identity. The content of the posts themselves (other than pinned or featured posts) was not evaluated on these values. This is because we wanted to find influencers who make these values and identities an important part of their public persona.
Approximately two in ten (18%) news influencers openly associate themselves with a particular political or social cause, value, or personal identity. The most common are LGBTQ+ identity or support (6%) and support for Palestinians (5%), Israelis (3%), or Ukrainians (3%).
Additionally, only a minority of news influencers in the sample (less than 1%) express support for abortion rights in this way, although 2% significantly declare their opposition to abortion. is.
News influencers on TikTok are more likely to show support for LGBTQ+ rights and identities on their profiles than influencers on other sites (13%). And as the debate over the Gaza conflict continues, about one in ten (9%) of TikTok’s news influencers express a pro-Palestinian stance, compared to 2% who are pro-Israel.
