☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Elon Musk interviews Donald Trump on X
- In other news: Harris campaign runs edited news headlines in Google search ads
- Looking ahead: New York City news radio mainstay WCBS to end run as news station
- Chart of the week: How Americans view the financial health of local news
🔥 Featured story
Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and a supporter of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy, hosted him for a live-streamed conversation this week. Although the interview was delayed by technical issues, it represented another example of the growing role social media and tech companies now play in the news and information environment – and a major shift after Trump was banned from Twitter following the last election.
About six-in-ten U.S. X users (59%) say that they use the platform to keep up with politics or political issues, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey – much higher than the shares of users on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram who say they use those sites in the same way.
At the time of the survey in March 2024, X users were about as likely to say that the political content they see on the platform leans mostly liberal (19%) as they were to say it leans mostly conservative (18%). Another 31% said it doesn’t lean either way and 23% said they were not sure.
📌 In other news
- Harris campaign runs edited news headlines in Google search ads to make articles seem pro-Harris
- In 2021, 2% of Elon Musk’s tweets were about politics; now, 17% are about politics
- California Institution for Women’s new audio and podcasting space to amplify incarcerated women’s voices
- The New York Times editorial board to stop endorsing political candidates in New York elections
- DNC to stream its convention on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube
- A profile of the socialist podcaster representing the uncommitted movement at the DNC
- Media outlets in Senegal staged a blackout on Tuesday amid press freedom concerns
- Limited success for 27 influencers NBC sent to the Paris Olympics
📅 Looking ahead
Earlier this week, the New York City AM radio station WCBS announced that it would end its nearly 60-year run in an all-news format. The station will relaunch as WHSQ later this month, and will air ESPN New York sports commentary.
About half of Americans (52%) say they often or sometimes get local news and information from radio stations, according to a 2024 survey, down slightly from 2018 (56%). And just 9% say that radio is their preferred platform for getting local news, well below the shares who prefer TV, news websites or apps, or social media.
Meanwhile, the average station revenue for all-news radio stations has declined over the past decade, according to industry data.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart is from a 2024 Center survey on how Americans view the financial state of their local news outlets. A majority of U.S. adults (63%) say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well – a slight decrease from 2018, when 71% said the same thing. Still, many seem unaware of the major financial challenges facing local news. For example, circulation and advertising revenue for newspapers have seen sharp declines in the last decade, according to our analysis of industry data.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
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