After years on the sidelines, this year content creators became part of mainstream political media, providing election news, analysis and political commentary to online fans. their routes—all while bypassing traditional journalism.
Mr. Joe Biden, 81 years old, was praised in front of the camera The TikTok singer cringed delightfully Harry Daniels. Bernie Sanders reached out to Kamala Harris on a Twitch stream co-hosted by an anime catboy VTuber. Donald Trump teams up with two quintessential creative brothers, Jake and Logan Paul. Instead of spending time in traditional sit-down interviews with the mainstream press, Harris and Trump relied on creators to attract votes and spread their campaign message.
Rob Flaherty, campaign deputy, “There is no value — to my colleagues in mainstream journalism — in a general election talking to The New York Times or The Washington Post, because because those (readers) were with us.” Harris manager, told Semafor in December.
The influence has grown industry worth $250 billion. More than 70% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say they follow an influencer on social media. Pew Research survey found last year. A more recent survey, published in Novemberfound that one in five American adults gets their news from news influencers. That shift in media consumption has led to record spending on creator partnerships. Priorities USA invests at least $1 million in influencer marketing. Harris campaign be paid at least 2.5 million USD for regulators to book creators for political advertising campaigns.
This election, creators are everywhere—Republican and Democratic conventions, fundraisers, rallies, and even parties at Mar-a-Lago . But the foundation for this creator's take on the political message was laid nearly a decade ago. In 2016, Trump showed how social media platforms like Twitter can influence voters. During the 2020 election, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than 300 million USD on the presidential campaign has recruited influencers and meme pages as paid digital representatives and the Biden administration Creators are invited regularly to the White House for a press conference.
By supporting creators, politicians have begun to blur the lines between talking heads and journalists. Unlike reporters, news creators often fall significantly short of editorial and fact-checking standards — something a high-profile libel lawsuit is unlikely to change, but for now, that marked a difference. Many creators do work similar to what journalists do—absorbing, translating, and communicating news to online audiences. But in the online political ecosystem, many of them appear as fans rather than objective observers. Some are clearly partisan activists. However, they are often given similar access to what Traditional journalism is okay.