News Influencers Are Reaching Young People, and the Media Is Trying to Keep Up

Yahoo

05-05-2025

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It's no surprise that young Americans say social media is their preferred way to get news. But a growing number of them are turning to news influencers — those familiar faces who often share frank, relatable, direct-to-camera videos — to learn about what's going on. In 2024, a Pew Research study found that about one in five Americans (21%) — including 37% of adults under 30 — said they regularly got news from influencers.
Divya Nagarajan, 19, a student at Emory University, says that seeing the same people in her feed makes them feel more trustworthy. 'It's kind of like the parasocial thing where it feels like I know them,' she tells Teen Vogue. Nagarajan says she favors the conversational tone news influencers use and the personal feel of their content vs. the onslaught of breaking alerts from legacy outlets.
Says Rachel Karten, a social media consultant and author of the Link in Bio newsletter, whether it's TikTok or Instagram, people don't want to leave the platforms where they already scroll, so you have to meet them where they are: "They're not there necessarily to consume news, but if it comes across their feed, they're going to watch it," she explains. "And they're going to start to maybe grow a connection with the person who is reporting that news.'
Relatability, perceived trustworthiness, ease of consumption: These are just some of the reasons young people say they're turning to these influencer voices. Online-first news outlets like NowThis and AJ+ have long understood this; more traditional outlets, however, have only just started experimenting with what has been called 'talent-driven journalism,' hiring news influencers who have a strong personal brand to lead their social presence.
Influencers can be a great way to connect with new audiences, but there are concerns that social content creators could be fueling the misinformation crisis. According to Pew, 77% of these influencers have no journalism background or affiliation with a news organization, which means they may not have strict standards for vetting the information they share. The growing interest in hiring or promoting camera-ready creators with a strong personal brand is also troubling for journalists who aren't particularly interested in being social media stars.
Of course, talent-driven journalism isn't exactly new. From familiar names in print to favorite radio hosts to iconic CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite's comforting and constant "And that's the way it is" sign-off, people have long preferred voices they recognize. That recognition breeds trust, and it's no different on social media. So some traditional media companies are now bringing influencers in-house, or focusing on growing the followings of in-house creators, to help reach younger audiences.
Mayra Báez, an audience strategist and AI consultant, helped launch AJ+, Al Jazeera's social media news and storytelling project, in 2014, intertwining the outlet's online brand with journalists' personal brands. In addition to making the news more engaging and approachable, Báez tells Teen Vogue via email, the move put journalists in direct conversation with audiences where they were increasingly spending time: on their phones. 'Social media-first newsrooms started doing this over a decade ago; the difference is that legacy media is only now catching up, and not by choice, but out of necessity.'
The Washington Post's social media audience skews younger than its audiences on other platforms, according to the publication's 'TikTok guy' Dave Jorgenson, and audience members feel a personal connection to the account's hosts after seeing them in videos for years. 'These people have been with us since they were teenagers, and we take that relationship very seriously,' he says. 'We know for a fact that our audience trusts us more because of our presence on TikTok and [YouTube] Shorts.'
Jorgenson, who launched the Post's TikTok channel in 2019, recently spun off a Post-produced series, Local News International, on his personal YouTube channel. The series is designed to be cut down for vertical video and shared on the Post's other accounts to help grow those audiences.
In January, the Post doubled down on its talent-driven strategy, restructuring its public relations division to focus on developing a 'star talent unit' — a move that resulted in layoffs at the outlet, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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Sara Sines, a 24-year-old dancer and performer, says she gets most of her news from influencers on social media, though the content often appears in her feed without her seeking it out. If she recognizes the face of someone whose approach she liked in the past, even if she doesn't know their name, she stops to hear their take when they pop up on her For You page.
For some publishers, social media has been the key to reaching new, younger audience members, like Sines, who may be unfamiliar with an outlet's nonsocial reporting. Morning Brew, which first launched as a business newsletter in 2015, has grown a stand-alone social media audience of millions of followers in part by leaning into creators, says Macy Gilliam, a video producer at the media company. 'Young people like to follow people; they don't really like to follow brands,' she notes. "We are people at the brand, so it's kind of like bridging the gap.'
Since stepping into an on-camera role two years ago, Gilliam, 24, appears every week in several short videos on Morning Brew's social channels and has become a recognizable presence. 'They'll comment things like, 'Oh, I love when Macy does this,' 'Oh, Macy's always joking about that.'' This familiarity, she says, gives Morning Brew's audience a stronger affinity for both the creator and the brand.
Gilliam, who recently launched a new video franchise under the Morning Brew umbrella, believes introducing creator personalities on an outlet's existing social channels benefits everyone: In-house influencers bring recognition, personality, and trustworthiness to the brand, creators get the company's editorial support, and audiences get more engaging content.
Talent-driven journalism does present many opportunities. But even as audience strategist Báez acknowledges the positives — news feels more personal, journalists connect directly with an audience, more accessibility, and the chance for people from underrepresented backgrounds to build their own following — she cautions that the practice also poses many challenges for journalists and news-seekers.
First, Báez says, social media takes place on 'borrowed land,' and is beholden to platforms with changing algorithms that generally deprioritize news. That makes it harder for outlets to ensure their coverage reaches the intended audiences, and for audiences to access the perspectives for which they're searching.
Additionally, Báez points out, not every journalist wants to be a public-facing personality. The shift toward news influencers favors extroverts over highly skilled journalists who do critical behind-the-scenes investigative work. It also increases the likelihood of harassment, burnout, and instability, especially for journalists from marginalized backgrounds. And, as with many shifts in media, this shift favors those who already have social capital, often white, male, well-connected voices, while others still struggle for visibility and support, she explains.
Time will tell whether news organizations can invest in influencers to effectively benefit reporters and audiences alike. 'Done right, it could strengthen journalism,' says Báez. 'Done poorly, it could widen existing inequalities and destabilize an already fragile industry.'
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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