☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Popular progressive news influencer says he was detained when reentering U.S.
- New from Pew Research Center: What do Americans think “news” is?
- In other news: New pope calls for journalists to avoid divisive language
- Looking ahead: CNN and Fox announce new streaming services
- Chart of the week: Factors in identifying whether something is considered news
🔥 Featured story
Hasan Piker, a popular progressive streamer with millions of followers across YouTube and Twitch, said he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently after flying back to the U.S. Piker said he was asked about many political topics, such as his views on the war in Gaza and President Donald Trump. But a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the incident was not politically motivated and that Piker was released after a routine inspection.
We recently asked the 21% of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media to name the first such influencer who comes to mind. Piker, and his handle HasanAbi, was among the most common answers. This was part of our broader study of news influencers, which found that on the whole, there are fewer news influencers like Piker who explicitly identify with the political left than those who are overtly right-leaning.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
A new Pew Research Center study uses qualitative online discussion boards, a nationally representative survey, and in-depth interviews with journalists to better understand the nuances of defining what “news” means to Americans in the digital era. An accompanying post on our Decoded blog looks more closely at the online discussion board methodology.
Nieman Lab: “News” in 2025 is in the eye of the beholder
📌 In other news
- Pope Leo XIV calls for news media to avoid divisive language
- Trump administration barred wire reporters from Air Force One flight to Middle East
- LA Times owner meets with Trump during Middle East trip
- New York state increases funding for public radio in response to CPB funding threat
- A look into the information war amid the India-Pakistan conflict
- EU court rules in favor of NYT journalist’s request for texts between EU chief and Pfizer CEO
- Smartmatic alleges Fox News destroyed text messages in 2020 election defamation case
- Time’s new vertical “Time Longevity” will focus on aging and the human lifespan
📅 Looking ahead
Both CNN and Fox this week announced new streaming services set to debut this fall. CNN’s foray into streaming will be its second, after CNN+ was launched in 2022 and quickly shuttered after less than a month. Fox plans to launch its new service, to be called Fox One, ahead of the National Football League season this year.
Moving toward streaming may be one way for these companies to avoid the revenue declines seen in traditional business models. CNN’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, has said that the company’s “future prospects will not be good” if CNN does not follow its audiences to the new platforms they are using.
Audiences are largely getting news from digital platforms. Digital devices are by far the most common way Americans get news, with a large majority of U.S. adults (86%) saying they at least sometimes get news from a digital device, and more than half (58%) saying they prefer this way of getting news over any other. Meanwhile, 63% say they get news from television at least sometimes, while just 32% prefer TV, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey.
📊 Chart of the week
This week, our chart comes from our new study on how Americans define news. U.S. adults are most likely to say that whether something is factual (85%) or up to date (78%) is a major factor in thinking about whether it counts as news, according to the nationally representative survey portion of the study. Majorities also say that whether something is important to society (72%) or unbiased (68%) is critical in this regard.
Far fewer (29%) say whether something is interesting or relevant to them personally is a major factor in whether it is news, although personal importance or relevance came up often when online discussion board participants defined news.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
Do you like this newsletter? Email us at journalism@pewresearch.org or fill out this two-question survey to tell us what you think.
