Tik Tok tops the news platforms in America… and influencers outperform journalists
A recent report by the Pew Research Center showed that Americans are increasingly relying on the TikTok application as a source of news and information, but without following media organizations or journalists on the platform.
TikTok users rely on creators and influencers to receive news, although disinformation and misinformation campaigns continue. According to the report, about half of Americans get their news from social media platforms.
The percentage of TikTok users who regularly get news from it has increased from 22% in 2020 to 52% currently. About 40% of Americans between 18-24 years old also rely on the app to discover news.
Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitch are also gaining popularity as news sources.
The report studied the following habits of 227,946 TikTok accounts and found that:
- About half of users follow medium-sized influencers in terms of number of followers.
- 38% follow small accounts such as friends and family.
- 2% follow celebrities, brands and spokespersons.
- Less than 1% follow journalists or media organizations.
Creators often reference mainstream media coverage in their content, meaning traditional news reaches TikTok users even without following specific journalists.
“News and politics content comes as a side dish to the main course of entertainment news, gossip and influencer content that the user is interested in,” says Aaron Smith, managing director of the Pew Research Center’s Data Labs.
However, some traditional media outlets have millions of followers on the app. Some freelance journalists have also achieved great success, such as Max Foster (1.2m followers), Cleo Abram (1.5m) and Taylor Lorenz (500k).
But these numbers are still small compared to the accounts of online creators such as Javi Lam (162.8 million) andMr. Best (104.5 million) and celebrities Cowell Smith (75.1 million) and Selena Gomez (58.2 million).
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