Journalists Losing Ground to Influencers in Shaping News Conversations on Social Media, Study Finds

Journalists are being outranked by influencers in terms of driving news conversation on social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

According to the 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, mainstream journalists have done well on legacy social media platforms like Facebook, but have not had the same impact on newer entrants like TikTok.

In contrast, personalities, influencers, and ordinary people are often more prominent on newer networks when it comes to conversations around news.

Mainstream news beat out personalities on Facebook and Twitter, but personalities won out on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

Despite this, Facebook remains the most important overall social media platform for news, but its importance has declined over time.

The report also found that different social media platforms have different topics that resonate with their users, which could hinder the efforts of some journalists and news organizations.
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