A screen grab of Dylan Page, one of the fastest growing Tiktok creators.
From print to television to digital to videos and now influencers. News consumption habits are changing. And how. According to a new report by Pew Research Center, nearly 40% of US adults under 30 regularly get news from news influencers, many of whom have never worked for news organizations.
The Pew report examined a sample of 500 “news influencers” on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube, and analyzed more than 100,000 posts in 2024 summer. These influencers, who have at least 100,000 followers each, regularly post about news and run their accounts themselves (and not a news organization).
Cut across to Gaza, where social media posts and videos from young creators outstripped news publishers on TikTok. A Reuters report earlier this year said that a creator named Dylan, who regularly posted about Gaza, had more followers and views than NYT or BBC News.
Graph from the Pew report
In India, although there is no such survey, it goes without saying that there would be quite a few influencers with or without a news background providing news to the young generation. News, analysis, and background that mainstream media may avoid for political, ideological or economic reasons.
Recently, I asked a school-going kid about his source of news. Without any hesitance, he said Druv Rathee. A controversial name for sure, Rahtee has 26.1M subscribers on YouTube. Another name, though from a news background, is Ravish Kumar, who has 12.1 million subscribers. There are many more such non-traditional news providers, filling the gap and doing what the mainstream media has failed to do – provide uncensored news. And going by the trends, the day isn’t far when traditional media will be relegated to a rare – and ignored – commodity.
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