We know that 1 in 5 Americans gets their news from creators on social media – a number that’s even higher with younger audiences. But where do creators get the information they share with those audiences?
In a survey of 36 creators from a variety of platforms, spanning topics from politics to pop culture to local issues, and even dogs, News Creator Corps found that while creators often use news outlets as sources of information, they also heavily rely on primary sources, like court documents, human sources and personal experience.
The results show that while the creators surveyed are dedicated to accuracy and verifying the information they share, they also consider their personal experiences as information worth sharing and make decisions about who to interview and what events to cover based on their and their audience’s values and existing information gaps. This demonstrates creators’ understanding of their audiences and how they can balance sharing information responsibility while still showing up authentically.
A few noteworthy takeaways:
- Creators consider their personal experience as part of their expertise. Traditional journalists are often discouraged from sharing their personal experiences in their work. In contrast, creators considering their lives and backgrounds as sources of information helps bring that authenticity factor that so many audiences value in creators.
- Creators focus on information gaps and perspectives missing in mainstream media. They make coverage and sourcing decisions based on the needs and values of their audiences.
- Creators care about sharing fact-based information. Most creators surveyed rely on trustworthy news outlets, primary sources like original data and documents and human sources. The vast majority of those surveyed also indicated they fact-checked information before sharing it with audiences.
- While many creators cite their sources, there’s room for improvement. Less than half of creators surveyed say they always or often cite their sources.
The creators surveyed produce several different kinds of content, including explainers, commentary, interviews and on-the-ground content.
For those that create explainers and commentary, creators surveyed indicated that they use a mix of sourcing that predominantly incorporates mainstream, national media sources, primary sources, human sources and their personal or lived experience.
Citing mainstream media
More than two-thirds of respondents who create explainers and commentary said they use mainstream national media outlets to source the information they share with their audiences. The most cited media source was the New York Times, with NPR, CNN, the Associated Press and Politico also being mentioned often.
More than 58% of respondents use primary document sources, like court records or government data, human sources, like experts or people working on the issues they cover and personal or firsthand lived experience. More than half of respondents use alternative, nonprofit, niche or hyperlocal news outlets, like LATaco, Hell Gate, The City, Texas Tribune, ProPublica, MirrorIndy, Oaklandside, Inside Climate News and more.
Only about a third of respondents indicated they use other creators as sources, with creators like Under the Desk News and Aaron Parnas being among the most often cited.
Highlighting under-the-radar voices
For the creators who conduct interviews on their platform, they indicated they prioritize interviewing subjects who have expertise or work in the creator’s focus area. They also select interview subjects based on information gaps that exist and voices, stories and perspectives they feel need to be heard by the communities they serve.
Of the creators who cover on-the-ground events, they indicated they select events that relate to the main topics they cover, focusing on events that align with their values. They assess whether the event has been adequately covered by other media, so they can prioritize their time and energy with events that are important to them and their audiences but may be getting less attention from other news sources.
Fact checking
All of the creators surveyed except for one indicated they fact-check or verify information in some way before sharing it. The methods cited include checking to see if the information appears in multiple sources, looking for primary sources to corroborate information, and using tools like SIFT, a method of evaluating online misinformation. Three respondents also indicated using resources like Snopes.
Most of the respondents avoid using AI for research and fact-checking. The few who indicated they do use AI describe it as a jumping off point for compiling background information for interviews or brainstorming.
Nearly half of the respondents indicated they always or often cite their sources. About 14% of creators surveyed said they sometimes cite their sources. Only one respondent said they hardly ever cite their sources in their posts. The response indicates that there is still work to be done in source transparency on social media—something NCC actively teaches its fellows to do.
While the survey highlighted some opportunities to improve sourcing and citing sources among creators, it also largely shows that many creators are already using responsible sourcing and fact-checking methods.