Editorial teams or news influencers - who informs today?

(radar.rs)

The latest report from the Reuters Institute for Journalism, "Mapping News Creators and Influencers on Social and Video Networks," analyzes the activity individuals or small teams that publish content via social and video platforms and have an impact on public debates about news and current events, while being at least partially independent of traditional media institutions. These are YouTube, TikTok and Instagram creators who comment on current events in politics and society, podcasters positioned as opinion lideri, already established journalists who have left their home editorial offices and started building personal brands, and analysts, including satirists who produce shorter or longer analytical content and commentaries.

For the audience - especially the young - News Influencers are increasingly becoming the primary sources and interpreters of news, instead of traditional media channels. According to the aforementioned report, based on data from 24 countries, the influence News Influencers are strongest in countries where traditional media is under some kind of pressure - political or economic. Predictably, they are most popular among social media users under 35 - almost half of them say they follow individual creators more than mainstream media. YouTube is the most important platform for News creators (most often mentioned by respondents when stating where they follow News influencers), while TikTok and Instagram are key for short, visually striking formats - which is also the field where traditional media is particularly losing the race.

Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro - right-wing, Republican and conservative-oriented authors and commentators - appear on the most popular lists in several countries, especially where the domestic scene does not yet have enough strong authors in these areas online. This also opens up the topic of the influence and spread of certain American ideological currents indirectly to other countries, much more flexible, dynamic and complex than is the case through traditional media. In Europe, one of the most famous News influencer is Frenchman Hugo Decrypt, who is followed by a fifth of the population under the age of 35 through YouTube and TikTok content. The audience that gets its information predominantly through News influencers states that he considers these authors "independent" because they are not tied to media outlets.

They like to follow them because their content helps them better understand current socio-political topics, they are quick to report on the latest events, they are authentic, they offer different information than other sources, and, finally, their attitudes and value systems match. Seductiveness and Popularity News The influencer's influence is clearly based on a combination of understandable, simple-language analyses and explanations of events, speed and topicality, and emotional connection with the audience. This area of ​​information is, of course, not left to inertia. Magazine research Wired it was written about Chorus Creator Incubator program in the US, in which over 90 pro-democracy influencers received up to $8.000 per month to place political messages, with clauses on the secrecy of the source of funding. This raised questions about the transparency of political advertising, but also about the transition from civic, organic online activism to professionally managed propaganda ecosystems through influencers. Overall, the trend shows that the power to shape the public sphere is shifting from editorial offices and political parties to networks News influencers and their communities. For now, regulation, ethics, and accountability are almost non-existent - or are reduced to platform rules and sporadic initiatives, which still struggle to keep up with the pace of change.