By: Dwight Links
News creators and influencers are on the rise, parallel to the conventional news platforms and social media outlets, according to a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Oxford University released in November.
This report mapped the new ways in which audiences from around the world consume their news and the frequency with which this happens.
“Social and video networks offer anyone the opportunity to build an audience off the back of free global distribution and increasingly powerful creator tools,” the report notes.
One important factor has been the monetisation of the content created on various platforms for audiences around the world.
This development in audience preferences in recent years is driven by the various distribution abilities and extensive reach that a creator can have on multiple subject matters.
Creators are also having an increasingly important political impact, with Donald Trump courting popular YouTubers and podcasters such as Joe Rogan and the Nelk Boys in the run-up to his 2024 election victory.
“The recent murder of activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk, and the coverage of the aftermath, reminds us of the critical role these personalities are now playing in shaping both public opinion and political narratives,” said Nic Newman, senior associate researcher for the Institute.
Newman is also one of the authors of the report.
The formulation of the report was based on whether new audiences and consumption trends still leaned towards the conventional media outlets and their reach, or if there had been considerable shifts in audience preferences.
“Pew Research finds that around a fifth (21%) of adults in the United States and more than a third of Under-30s (37%) now regularly get news from so-called creators or influencers, with the majority of these saying that the way these personalities present the news helps them better understand current events and civic issues,” the report outlines as the baseline it worked from.
ADAPTION
Traditional media outlets have had to adapt their offerings to the audiences to stay relevant through creative production and engagement.
“Traditional news organisations have been adapting their content for social and video networks, driven by increasing audience preference for consuming on these platforms. Much of this is delivered through brand-led accounts, but some publishers are also leaning into ‘personality-led’ social accounts as a way to engage younger audiences in particular,” the report explains.
Newman reiterates that this is a combination of new ways of monetising content and that these attributes have encouraged a new breed of creators and an explosion of content across many genres, which include news.
This has seen a peculiar trend come about, which impacts the journalism and news-generating realm.
“In another recent development, some high-profile journalists have started to leave news organisations and set up on their own, either because they want more control or believe they can make more money, or both,” the researchers highlight, using the rapid growth of Tucker Carlson’s own channel after leaving the famed Fox News.
NEW GENRES
In the report, the most used format of content delivery has been the ‘Commentary’ bracket, which sees the creators have more freedom to expand on subject matters or be more ‘free’ in their expression.
“It is the most frequently mentioned category represented in our data and generally describes online political chat show hosts, such as Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Russell Brand,” the researchers note.
This also shows that this category is mostly dominated by men.
According to the report, Commentary tends to be cheap and does not require investment in newsgathering or infrastructure. This category is also unconstrained by regulations or norms around impartiality that may exist for television and radio.
“Many of the biggest names in political commentary, such as Ravish Kumar (India), Julian Reichelt (Germany), and Piers Morgan (UK) used to work as journalists, but are now highly critical of the mainstream media,” the report adds.
Explanation, Specialism, and News & Investigation were the other three categories featured in the report.
