JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Some media influencers have a background in traditional journalism, but many don't. And as NPR's Huo Jingnan reports, they are now a source of news for a significant number of Americans, especially when it comes to politics.
HUO JINGNAN, BYLINE: Perhaps the most powerful influencer right now is podcaster Joe Rogan, who is popular with young men. Here he is interviewing President-elect Donald Trump before the election, about his first run for office.
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JOE ROGAN: Do you just assume because...
DONALD TRUMP: I don't think it's...
ROGAN: ...People loved you on "The Apprentice" that they were going to love you as a president?
TRUMP: Well, I think that it would be so easy.
HUO: And the campaign recognized Rogan's power. On election night, as Trump delivered his victory speech, he handed his mic to businessman Dana White, who gave a big shout-out to some of the influencers who promoted Trump.
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DANA WHITE: I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, "Bussin' With The Boys" and, last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.
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HUO: The Pew Research Center, which surveys Americans on a wide range of issues, took a look at social media influencers on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and TikTok. They found that 1 in 5 American adults say they look to influencers as one source of news. Galen Stocking, a senior computational social scientist at Pew, co-authored the report.
GALEN STOCKING: It shows that this is widespread. This is not just some niche kind of content area, but a really important element of people's media diets.
HUO: Pew found that influencers are particularly important for young people. Almost 4 in 10 respondents under 30 say this is one way they get news. Influencers are also more popular with people of color and with lower-income Americans. While both Republicans and Democrats worked with influencers over the election, the influencers Pew looked at skewed conservative by a few percentage points, and men outnumbered women by a lot, on all the platforms, except TikTok.
STOCKING: This set of influencers sampled from TikTok is more balanced by gender than the other sites. Fifty percent are men, 45% are women. Whereas, on the other sites, it's all in the 60% range are men.
HUO: This happens to track the breakdown for journalists covering politics in traditional news outlets, even though the gender split among all reporters is roughly 50/50. Online content creators connect with their followers in a different way than old-school media, says Renee DiResta, a Georgetown University researcher who recently wrote a book about influencers.
RENEE DIRESTA: People feel like they're speaking to them, right? Like, this is somebody who is just like me, who is sharing information, and who is communicating in a way that really resonates.
HUO: One TikTok influencer, who goes by Stephanie's Universe, recently started a video with her dog by her side.
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UNIDENTIFIED INFLUENCER: Yes, yes. Happy Friday, everyone. This is Sagan.
HUO: She went on to discuss a recent congressional hearing about UFOs.
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UNIDENTIFIED INFLUENCER: Nothing would surprise me - nothing.
HUO: DiResta says that the influencers tend to be charismatic storytellers who are responsive to the niche communities, unlike traditional media.
DIRESTA: It's a different way of making sense of the world. It's a different way of experiencing content.
HUO: But one thing we don't see most influencers do, DiResta says, is to go out and find facts.
Huo Jingnan, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLI XCX SONG, "360") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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