The era in which turning on the television news or opening the newspaper satisfied a nation’s collective need for information appears to be history in the United States. A nationwide survey by the polling institute Ipsos on behalf of the Jordan Center for Journalism Innovation and Advocacy at the University of Mississippi paints a picture of a significant transformation in the media landscape. Online platforms and digital personalities have overtaken television and traditional print media as regular news sources in the USA.
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This trend is particularly evident among citizens who took part in the recent presidential election. The study makes it clear that the connection to journalistic institutions is crumbling and instead a direct feeling of belonging to individuals is emerging. These often have a clear political agenda or come from the entertainment industry.
At the top of the new information hierarchy, paradoxically, are the actors who are actually at the center of traditional reporting. Conservative politicians, especially President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet, serve as primary news sources for many voters. They bypass the classic editorial filters and communicate directly with their base.
If you exclude the active politicians from the statistics, the power of the new media makers becomes even clearer. The controversial podcaster Joe Rogan leads the field of the most influential non-politicians. This is followed by faces from the right-wing channel Fox News such as Greg Gutfeld and Sean Hannity as well as the conservative commentators Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. But only three characters managed to crack the ten percent approval mark as “top influencers” in the survey: Trump, Rogan and Vice Chancellor JD Vance.
Entertainment beats information
The shift towards opinionated individuals is not a purely right-wing phenomenon, even if it seems particularly pronounced there. Voters who voted for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are also highly personality oriented. However, they are more often looking for this in the area of political satire and entertainment.
The late night stars dominate the field here. Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are the most important contact points for Democratic supporters when it comes to classifying world events. Andrea Hickerson, dean of the Journalism Institute at the University of Mississippi, sees this as a departure from institution-centered news consumption. People follow creators and commentators directly, which pushes traditional journalism into a defensive role.
The numbers from the survey carried out in March are striking: almost 70 percent of those surveyed said they get information online in a typical week. Television only comes to 55.2 percent. Newspapers follow behind at 25.2 percent. Radio and magazines play a minor role at 18.5 and 5.5 percent respectively. Within the digital world, Facebook and YouTube are the undisputed heavyweights, followed by Instagram, X, TikTok and Reddit. On these platforms, high-profile opinion leaders and comedians seem to drown out the voices of traditional journalists, according to Steven L. Herman, director of the Jordan Center.
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A divided media ecosystem
Historically, polarization and personalization are not entirely new. Already in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sensational and polarizing voices such as the satirist Mark Twain and the populist priest Charles Coughlin shaped the political landscape. The difference today is the technological reach and the speed at which content spreads.
The study also shows a gap in media use between the political camps. While a third of Democrats still rely on newspapers, only 18.5 percent of Republicans do. Harris voters continue to listen to established brands like CNN and the New York Times to a high degree. Trump supporters are focused on Fox News and social media. This fragmentation means that U.S. citizens are increasingly filtering their information based on their pre-existing worldview. According to the study makers, this further undermines trust in neutral reporting.
An analysis by the Reuters Institute on international news usage revealed a different situation for Germany last year. Tagesschau, aktuell & Co. have therefore regained first place in terms of importance for satisfying the hunger for information about current events compared to online sources and social media.
(NO)
