News influencers survey: 20% of US adults say they get news from social media influencers, 85% of influencers are on X and 27% identify as right-wing, and more
The creators and consumers in the world of news and information on social media — Table of Contents Table of Contents
Context & Ripple Effects
Social platforms were already a significant news pathway: a 2021 Pew survey found that 53% of U.S. adults got news from social media at least sometimes. This survey narrows the lens from platforms to the people whose posts can function as news sources, including a creator population heavily present on X.
The finding also sits alongside later Pew work showing influencers as information intermediaries in other high-interest categories, including health and wellness information for young adults. That makes the news use case relevant beyond traditional publisher distribution alone.
First-order effects
- News influencers become a distinct distribution channel for the one-fifth of U.S. adults who say they get news from them, rather than merely a source of social-media commentary.
- X is immediately important to this creator cohort because 85% of surveyed news influencers are on the platform; the survey also makes the cohort's stated ideological mix visible, with 27% identifying as right-wing.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and journalists must compete not only for platform reach but also for attention and trust against personality-led accounts; the earlier broad use of social media for news supplies the audience base for that competition.
- Platforms have an incentive to retain news creators and their audiences, while advertisers, researchers, and readers face a greater need to distinguish original reporting from influencer interpretation and aggregation.
Third-order effects
- If influencer-led news consumption continues to grow, news distribution may shift further from institution-led homepages and feeds toward individual personalities as recurring gateways to events and narratives.
- The durable challenge is provenance: as content becomes an input to how audiences form views, the value of clear sourcing, accountability, and context rises even when the initial discovery happens through a creator.
The trend: News consumption is becoming more creator-mediated, with social platforms serving as infrastructure for personalities who package, interpret, and distribute information.