- News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube.
- Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race) in the 2024 election. This information was found in the bio, profile picture, banner image, pinned posts or recent posts on an influencer’s social media account, any personal website or professional page, and prominent media coverage.
- Values and identities – Language or imagery in the bio, profile picture, banner image or pinned posts on an influencer’s social media account that expresses specific beliefs or identities.
- News organization affiliation – An influencer with this affiliation is one who either currently works for or previously worked for a news organization, as well as freelancers who have regularly contributed to news organizations. A news organization can be any news outlet that has a staff and multiple bylines. Researchers considered affiliated influencers to have this background regardless of their news organization’s political orientation, audience size or primary publishing method (digital, TV, print, etc.).
- Major social media sites – The five primary sites we studied, chosen based on audience size and the presence of discussion about news: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
A somewhat higher share of news influencers on the social media site X explicitly identify with the political right (28%) than the left (21%). A small share (3%) express some other political affiliation, while about half (48%) do not express any clear political lean.
Influencers were categorized by whether they identify with a political party or ideology or expressed support for the Democratic or Republican presidential candidate in their social media profile, posts, personal website or media coverage.
About this chapter
This chapter looks at news influencers on X (formerly Twitter). Virtually all of them also have accounts on other sites. For analysis of news influencers in general across social media sites, read the report overview.
In this report, news influencers are people with large followings on social media sites who regularly post about current events or civic issues. Refer to the methodology for details.
Related: X users’ experiences with news
Fewer news influencers on X identify specific values or identities on their accounts. This includes 6% who say they are pro-LGBTQ+ (or express a LGBTQ+ identity), 4% who express a pro-Palestinian viewpoint and 3% who identify as pro-Israeli. In addition, 3% of X news influencers express views favoring Ukraine. These positions can be indicated in a variety of ways, whether through words, images or emojis (including flags).
Some X news influencers also prominently identify as opposing (2%) or supporting abortion rights (fewer than 1%).
Among news influencers posting on X, 64% are men, while 29% are women. Previous research has found that 64% of Americans who regularly get news on X are men, while 35% are women.
Refer to the methodology for details on how researchers coded news influencers by gender.
Most news influencers on X have not worked for a news organization, but about a quarter (26%) have a current or former affiliation with a news outlet. These organizations range from more traditional news outlets like CNN to newer digital news sources such as The Daily Wire.
For more details on the differences between influencers who have worked for a news organization and those who have not, read Chapter 4.
What are news influencers on X posting about?
To get a sense of what news influencers are posting about, researchers collected and analyzed all public posts by the 500 news influencers in our sample for three separate weeks: July 15-21, July 29-Aug. 4 and Aug. 19-25.
There were many major events related to the election in or around these weeks, including the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, the Republican National Convention July 15-18, President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race July 21 and the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19-22.
More than half of X posts by news influencers that were about current events or civic issues during those weeks addressed politics or the election (55%).
Social issues were the focus of 18% of all news-focused posts, covering a range of topics from race to abortion to LGBTQ+ issues to the culture wars. And 15% of posts were about international topics, with about half of these covering the Israel-Hamas war (8%).
What other sites are X news influencers on?
Although a higher percentage of news influencers are on X than any other social media site, most news influencers on X are also on at least one other site.
About a third of news influencers on X (34%) are only on X, while about two-thirds are on at least one other site. This includes 31% who are on four or more other social media sites (five or more in total).
Roughly half of news influencers on X are also on Instagram (49%), while smaller shares are on YouTube (44%), Facebook (35%) and TikTok (21%).
The study also looked at how many news influencers on each site host a podcast or a newsletter. Roughly a third of news influencers on X (37%) host a podcast, while one-quarter send out an email newsletter.
A majority (62%) also seek financial support from their audience in at least one way. This includes 52% who offer subscriptions to additional content (some through subscription tools that X provides), 32% who ask for donations, and 23% who sell merchandise.
A relatively small share of X news influencers (6%) also have a public Discord server where they can further connect with fans and followers.
