This Was the Year of the Influencer Political Takeover

After years on the sidelines, content creators have become a part of mainstream political media this year, delivering election news, analysis and political commentary to their online fans—all while bypassing the traditional press.

81-year-old Joe Biden was serenaded on camera The Tiktok singer is shaking with joy Harry Daniels. Bernie Sanders stumped for Kamala Harris in a Twitch stream An anime catboy vituber. Donald Trump collaborates with the best creator brothers, Jack and Logan Paul. Instead of making time for traditional sit-down interviews with the mainstream press, Harris and Trump relied on producers to sway the polls and spread their campaign messages.

“Talking to The New York Times or talking to the Washington Post about a general election — with respect to my colleagues in the mainstream press — is worth nothing, because they [readers] are already with us,” said Rob Flaherty, Harris’s deputy campaign manager. told Semaphore in December.

has spread influence A $250 billion industry. More than 70 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say they follow an influencer on social media, A Pew Research survey found last year. A recent study, Published in NovemberIt found that one in five US adults get their news from news influencers. This shift in media spending was met with record spending on creator partnerships. Priority USA puts at least $1 million toward influencer marketing. Harris campaign Paid at least $2.5 million To management agencies who book producers for political advertisement campaigns.

This election, builders were everywhere—at Republican and Democratic conventions, fundraisers, rallies and even parties at Mar-a-Lago. But the groundwork for this takeover of the creator of political messaging was laid nearly a decade ago. In 2016, Trump showed how social media platforms like Twitter can influence voters. Throughout the 2020 election, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Spent more than $300 million on a presidential campaign which employed influencers and meme pages as paid digital surrogates and the Biden administration Regularly invited producers At the White House for a briefing.

By embracing creators, politicians have begun to blur the lines between talking heads and journalists. Unlike reporters, news producers often lack oversight of editorial standards and sufficient fact-checking—something a high-profile defamation case is far from changing but for now it marks a difference. Many creators work like journalists—absorbing, translating, and communicating news to online audiences. But in the online political ecosystem, many of them come across more as fans than objective observers. Some are clearly party workers. Still, they often provide similar access to what they do Traditional press gets.