Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

News Habits & Media

fact sheet

News Influencers Fact Sheet

News influencers on social media have become a popular alternative to traditional journalists and news organizations as a source of news for many Americans. This fact sheet looks at Americans’ experiences with news influencers on social media.

Icon for promotion number 1

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

Thank you for subscribing!

All

News Habits & Media

Publications

Refine Your Results

  • report

    Gun Control and the Media

    The Twitter debate about gun control has taken many twists and turns since the Newtown killings, according to a new Pew Research Report that looks at the mainstream coverage and social media conversation on that issue. Which terms did the media most often invoke when discussing gun control? And how big a factor was President Obama in driving the narrative about it?

  • presentation

    The State of Digital Marketing in the Networked Age

    Pew Internet Director Lee Rainie will discuss the Project’s latest research into internet trends, mobile connectivity, and use of social media and what they mean for marketers.

  • report

    Gun Debate Draws More Interest than Immigration Policy Debate

    Overview As Congress returns to Washington to resume work on gun control and immigration legislation, the public is paying far closer attention to news about the gun control debate than news about the debate over immigration policy. A national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted April 4-7 among 1,003 adults, finds 37% say they […]

  • report

    Network News: A Year of Change and Challenge at NBC

    After an unusual uptick in the overall audience for evening news in 2011, the trend line returned to its normal in 2012. The combined viewership for the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts dropped 2%, to 22.1 million, resuming the downward trajectory of nearly three decades. It now appears that 2011 may have been an outlier, with the bigger audience attributable to an unusual number of major news events that year, including the Arab Spring, the Japanese earthquake and the killing of Osama bin Laden. Even a presidential election couldn’t keep some viewers from deserting network news in 2012.

  • report

    Digital: As Mobile Grows Rapidly, the Pressures on News Intensify

    For more than a decade, as the desktop/laptop era of computing took hold, news organizations were at a severe disadvantage competing against a raft of financially and technologically stronger tech companies. Now, the rapid advance of the mobile era threatens a whole new level of upheaval, as both the costs and technological challenges of keeping up in the swiftly evolving news ecosystem multiply.

  • report

    Newspapers: Stabilizing, but Still Threatened

    If the newspaper industry had theme music in 2013, it might use “Been down so long it looks like up to me,” the much-recycled line from a 1920s blues song. For the first time since the deep recession that began in 2007, newspaper organizations have grounds for a modicum of optimism.

  • report

    Cable: A Growing Medium Reaching its Ceiling

    Cable news continues to operate with more stability than most other news sectors today. But financial growth tapered off in 2012, and audience figures started to show signs of languishing—at least raising the question of whether there is a ceiling for this niche news genre.

  • report

    Local TV: Audience Declines as Revenue Bounces Back

    The long slow decline in viewership of local television news resumed in 2012 after a brief respite the previous year. While stations devoted more of their available air time to local news, that wasn’t sufficient to halt the decline in viewership. Early-morning newscasts continued to gain viewers, but that increase was more than offset by losses in most other time slots.

  • report

    News Magazines: Embracing Their Digital Future

    Amid the broad decline of the magazine industry in recent years, news magazines have been among the hardest hit. That trend continued in 2012 for the six publications analyzed by the Pew Research Center, Time and Newsweek, as well as four smaller niche publications – The Economist, The Atlantic, The Week and The New Yorker. Ad pages for the group fell by an average of 10.4% in 2012, about 25% greater than the 8.2% slide experienced by magazines over all.

REfine Your Selection

Date
Years
Formats
Regions & Countries
Research Teams
Authors

Signature Reports

report
Pew Research Center illustration for America's News Influencers report; photos via Getty Images

America’s News Influencers

This study explores the makeup of the social media news influencer universe, including who they are, what content they create and who their audiences are.

Features