A new study out of the Pew Research Center found that 1 in 5 Americans gets news from personalities on social media.
The study found that among American adults, 21% said they get their news from news influencers, 51% said they do not get their news from news influencers on social media, and 28% indicated they avoid social media as a news source altogether. When it came to adults under 30, the influence of news influencers jumped from 21% among adults as a whole to 37%.
Pew's study also found that the highest concentration of news influencers were found on X at 85%. Instagram came in at 50%, and YouTube at 44%.
According to the author of "Hate Inc," Matt Taibbi, one of the drivers for the split in attention between legacy media and new influencers on social media was the internet. Before the internet, Taibbi explained, the news was mostly a scarcity business where there were a limited number of airtime slots, but with the internet, there's essentially an "infinite" number of channels where audiences can look for a place that mirrors their views and find comfort.
One media social media news influencer, Matteo Recanatini, expanded on this point, telling CNBC that once an audience is established in a certain niche, it's hard to gain new audiences because the relationship between audience and creator gets reinforced by algorithms.
"Most people," he said, "will interact with the content that they enjoy, and that feeds the algorithm and creates echo chambers. If you're not aware of it, you end up thinking 100% of the people around you feel a certain way just because you feel this affinity with the information you're consuming."
For politicians, Syracuse professor Joshua Darr said that podcasts on the internet have been a gift for getting in front of audiences. Network news interviews, he added, tend to be more combative than long-form podcasts.
"It's probably good for the electorate to have a hard sit-down interview, but if it's a series of rapid-fire gotcha questions, I don't know if that's something campaigns are going to sign up for," Darr said.