Once upon a time, people used to get their news from the paper and TV news — and while those sources may have had different standards and biases, there was some sense of a shared truth. The internet changed all of that. Now, Pew Research Center is examining a new phenomenon: the news influencer. Their researchers defined this as individuals who regularly post on social platforms about current events and civic issues, and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube (so based on the recent Xodus, their findings might already be outdated). Here’s the full study, which examines the gender breakdown, ideology and content of these influencers. We want to know: Where do you get your news these days (choose as many answers as you like)? Tell us in the comments if there’s a news influencer you trust, and tag them if you can.
#News #Media #Journalism #ContentCreation #Influencers
#MediaIndustry
88% of respondents to our poll said they get their news from websites, followed by 47% who look to social media (our math is good — folks were allowed to choose more than one answer!). We’re guessing @ahimsa_pdx’s answer represents a lot of views when it comes to social media though: “Social media is often where I first learn about a story but I generally don’t trust the info until I see confirmation on a trusted news source.”
RSS feeds, radio news such as the BBC World Service and Swedish Public Service Radio and podcasts were also popular, plus apps like Apple News (never heard of them) and Flipboard (apparently they’re excellent). In terms of individual “news influencers,” people recommended @GottaLaff, @pluralistic, @dangillmor and @georgetakei
If you didn’t have time to explore the full Pew Research document, here are a couple of articles that pull out the major findings. @taylorlorenz wrote in her User Mag newsletter about the depressing demographic of most news influencers:
https://www.usermag.co/p/the-majority-of-news-influencers
Nieman Lab pulls out the same fact — plus the nugget that most of these influencers have never worked for a traditional news organization.
#News #Media #Journalism #ContentCreation #Influencers #NewsInfluencers
@[email protected] Radio. Specifically BBC Radio4.
@[email protected] I’ve had to reduce to certain articles recommended by mastodon users, Imgur and a few flipboard people. Most of the news kind of normalizes Trump’s behavior, and I find that to be horrifyingly irresponsible.
And those that don’t, like the Washington Post, stabbed me in the back and lost me as a subscriber forever.
I blocked the entire domain from my router entirely (which is also the Cafe downstairs)
@[email protected] Multiple choices but my ‘Something else’ includes Apple News and RSS.
@[email protected] Have you heard of Flipboard? We hear it’s VERY good.
@[email protected] Of course and I follow a few of your accounts for media orgs here, but I figured that counted as social media and not ‘Something else’.
@[email protected] Yes, our app is more in the same bucket as Apple News, which we would place in the “news websites” realm, since that’s what we and they are mainly recommending, but good point that our presence here is very different!
We have a group of people who post local news things that we regularly check on.
@[email protected] Not sure if this is exactly what you mean but I read @[email protected] threads/blog pretty regularly. It’s kind of news, kind of analysis/commentary on our political/economic/legal environment.
I also recently found @[email protected] 's excellent “cornerstone of democracy” newsletter which has highlighted a lot of important coverage outside mainstream outlets, I think I will start trying to read that more frequently https://cornerstone.ghost.io/essentials-november-6-2024/
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] Yes, Pluralistic and Dan would perhaps fall into that category of “news influencers” (though they may not like that term!).
@[email protected] And by social media I mean :mastodon: :fediverse:
@[email protected] Any particular posters or accounts you recommend?
@[email protected] No, it is about building up your TL by following loads of people who are interesting, and following the hashtags you’re interested in.
@[email protected] I like to add, I also follow wordpress websites, lemmy accounts, peertube… Explore and follow people you like.
I used to get The Guardian/Flipboard here on mastodon.
Now it has disappeared for some strange reason.
I read The Guardian.
@[email protected] HI Lorrie, unfortunately The Guardian has stopped updating its account on Flipboard and therefore we are not able to distribute its content. Previously, the account @[email protected] was operated by press.coop and fed by an RSS feed. All people who were previously following the press.coop account have now been migrated to the new flipboard.social account, however it will not be updated unless The Guardian decides to create its own account here, at which point we will move all followers over to that account.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
Thank you kindly for explaining. It makes sense to me now.
I will just go to their site.
Many thanks 😊
@[email protected] You can also follow their RSS feed using an RSS reader — here’s what they say: https://manage.theguardian.com/help-centre/article/how-to-use-theguardians-rss
@[email protected] 1. Websites of traditional news sources
2. News sources posting on Mastodon.
3. Podcasts@[email protected] Any particular Mastodon recommendations? We’d love to build out our Newstodon Friday thread!
@[email protected] The News I follow on Mastodon:
https://social.chinwag.org/@abc_bot (Australian ABC, not U.S.)
https://social.chinwag.org/@guardian_bot (Guardian Australia. The global one seems dormant)
https://texasobserver.social/@TexasObserver
https://mastodon.social/@IndyMediaAus (Seems to be an aggregator rather than news outlet…)
https://flipboard.com/@KyivIndependent
https://flipboard.com/@USAToday
@[email protected] I also listen to the Swedish Public Service Radio.
@[email protected]
I get most news from my RSS subscriptions with Feedly.@[email protected] Under something else: Radio. I’m a news radio junkie (BBC World Service in the mornings)
@[email protected] Social media is often where I first learn about a story but I generally don’t trust the info until I see confirmation on a trusted news source.
But it’s very common to see a link on social media that points directly to a news website. Does that count as getting news from social media or getting news from a news website?
In that case social media influences which stories I see, and the poster may add context or commentary, but the actual news content is from the news website.
@[email protected] has always been one of my favourite news influencers, even on the deceased Twitter platform (heX is NOT Twitter).
@[email protected] none
