Social media influencers and celebrities are now the dominant source of news among users of apps like Snapchat and TikTok that are popular among young Americans, overtaking mainstream news sources in the process, per a new report by the UK-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
“While mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news in Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to get attention in newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, where personalities, influencers, and ordinary people are often more prominent, even when it comes to conversations around news,” according to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2023 (pdf) released on June 13. According to SEO platform Backlinko, Snapchat reaches more than 75 percent of the GenZ and millennial population in the United States. Meanwhile, 37.3 percent of GenZ Americans use TikTok at least once a month.
