Young people are quite critical of influencers when it comes to their subjective presentation of newsworthy information. They expect journalists to be neutral above all. This is what the #UseTheNews study found out during group discussions with teenagers and young adults.

Leonie Wunderlich, co-author of the study, has described the results in detail in the dpa Innovation Blog (in German).

Abstract

In social media, young people follow not only their friends and acquaintances, but also prominent people from the music and film business as well as well-known personalities from politics and the media. By sharing content online or producing and distributing news-like content themselves, these actors also serve as a source of information for many young people. The relevance of so-called social media influencers (SMI) for information use and opinion formation is related in particular to their function as identification figures and the satisfaction of group-related needs of young people.

This is shown in a recently published paper presenting findings from group discussions with adolescents and young adults conducted as part of the #UseTheNews project. Moreover, many young people express a critical opinion of influencers in social networks, especially when it comes to their subjective portrayals. Young people primarily expect journalists to be neutral.

Read more on the dpa blog
Wunderlich, L. (2022): „Die halte ich dann auch für eine seriöse Quelle“: Was junge Menschen von Influencern erwarten. Und von Journalisten. [“I Consider Them to Be a Serious Source”: What Young People Expect from Influencers. And from Journalists.] https://innovation.dpa.com/2022/02/02/was-junge-menschen-von-influencern-und-journalisten-erwarten/ 03 February 2022