A newsfluencer, also news influencer or journo-influencer, is an influencer who creates content on current events and civic issues on social media platforms. People who fall into this category include self-employed journalists, Substack writers, podcasters, YouTuber and TikToker journalists, and Twitch streamers. The genres these influencers embrace span from imitating news reporting like Walter Cronkite to providing commentary on and critiques of news stories they find interesting or troubling.
In contrast to journalists working with traditional news media companies who offer original reporting that is carefully researched and verified, newsfluencers have the advantage of speed in that they create and distribute their content quickly. They also benefit from the perception that they are approachable and that the news they share is peer-centered. [1] [2] Some newsfluencers expand on existing news stories by dissecting news representations and critiquing the viewpoints of differing news outlets. [3] Others are influencers who occasionally insert news commentary into their feeds.
During the 2020 United States presidential election, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker live streamed for eleven hours, keeping himself on camera as he followed and shared election results in an unpolished way that "reflected [his audiences'] own news consumption practices". [4]
In 2024, the Pew Research Center reported that just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say that they get news at least sometimes from social media apps, with about one third saying that they regularly get news from Facebook and YouTube. [5] The Reuters Digital News Report, which is based on data from six continents and 48 markets, founded that about a third of people around the world report using Facebook (36%) and YouTube (30%) for news every week. [6]
In September 2024, "newsfluencer" was defined as "platformatised creators who operate according to the economic and cultural logics of online influencers to produce news content for participatory audiences". [4] Newsfluencers come from varied professional and amateur backgrounds, including former journalists to independent content creators, who are able to create timely and relatable news coverage in "Facetime-style videos" compared to traditional news media. [7]
Citing a decline in trust in legacy media outlets, in January 2025, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced an initiative to increase access to the White House for podcasters, bloggers, and social media influencers. [8] More than 7,400 requests for the "new media" passes were received within the first 24 hours of this announcement. [9]
Examples of newsfluencers include: [1] [2]
Regarding news on TikTok, its factual accuracy is understudied. However, media watchdog NewsGuard found that 20 percent of TikTok’s news search results contained misinformation. [1] Traditional news media companies, like NBC News, and academics have criticized some newsfluencers of asking uncritical questions or showing overt bias towards people they are interviewing. [10]