Social media platforms have given rise to digital influencers who speak about everything from fashion to travel to gaming. With this, the media industry is also seeing the rise of news influencers, individuals who regularly post online about current events and social issues, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.
But, what happens when traditional journalists make the jump from the newspaper page, television screen or radio station to the YouTube or TikTok channel? How does the audience, and journalist himself, think of their job title and responsibilities then?
“I don’t see myself becoming an influencer. I am and always will be a journalist. This transition, to me, is broader and involves a shift in the kind of journalism I believe in—journalism that reaches people. Today I am very clear, and the numbers also show this, that news consumption is more present on social media than in the traditional press,” Guilherme Amado, a traditional journalist in Brazil, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
Amado is a political columnist at PlatôBR and on the board of directors at the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), and he says he plans to launch his own YouTube channel in June.
“I’m not attached to print, TV or radio. I’m attached to journalism—and, fundamentally, to the audience. I want to bring the facts I uncover to wherever the audience is,” he said.
The rise of the journalist-influencer was the focus of a recent Reuters Institute Digital News Report and the subject of a recent ebook published by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. The Reuters Institute report showed that Latin American countries have some of the highest number of users on social and video platforms, and among the fastest adopters of new platforms. The report found news-related accounts are mentioned most frequently in Brazil, Argentina and the United States, and suggests the visibility of alternative voices on social media underscores some shortcomings of legacy media, such as lack of trust, topic diversity and digital storytelling.
“I think this is a response to news avoidance and the difficulty people have consuming news,” Amado said. “Many say reading the news is boring—you don’t get a balance between heavy and lighter topics, and even the interesting ones are delivered in a dull way.”
In Brazil, the biggest media brands—such as Globo, Record and CNN Brazil—work with TV presenters to build social media profiles and influence, according to the Reuters Institute. Many long-time or former hosts, often with a history of conservative political commentary, have expanded their influence across social media.
According to the Reuters Institute, the most-mentioned individual social media profiles related to news in Brazil include: Alexandre Garcia, a journalist and political commentator with 4.2 million followers on X and 2.7 million on YouTube who was accused of spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and had videos removed from his YouTube channel. Celebrity journalist Leo Dias and influencer Hugo Gloss, who also focuses on celebrity news, both have more than 18 million Instagram followers and combine their reach on social media with personal websites and close collaborations with traditional media portals.
Amado believes the key difference between journalists and influencers lies in how each prioritizes content versus format. As a 2018 fellow at the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, he researched cross-border collaboration in journalism and shifted toward entrepreneurship. He said most journalists focus more on the substance of the news than on how it will be distributed or how easily it can be understood. Influencers, by contrast, often place more emphasis on using accessible or highly stylized language, sometimes at the expense of accuracy.
“It’s not easy to be a self-taught communicator,” Amado said. “Influencers often struggle with content because they lack the training to fact-check, to verify information or to understand the multiple layers involved in questions of truth. They often also lack an understanding of ethics, responsibility, and other essential aspects.”
With more than 20 years of experience, journalist Rosana Hermann agrees that influencers often fail to uphold ethical standards in the content they spread on social media. A columnist for Folha de S.Paulo, Hermann hosted a daily news commentary program on the audio app Clubhouse during its peak popularity in the pandemic. She now runs a paid Close Friends channel on Instagram where she shares personal content.
Journalist Rosana Hermann in a video about artificial intelligence shared on her Instagram profile (Screenshot / Instagram)
“I’m fully in favor of journalists connecting with the public as digital influencers, but I’m not in favor of just any influencer—without any journalistic training—calling themselves a ‘digital journalist’ just because they can repost and comment on everything online, without citing sources, without fact-checking and often just copying others’ content without credit,” Hermann told LJR. “Of course, any informed citizen has the right to comment on the news, but it should be within the context of media and information literacy, and with an understanding of the responsibilities involved.
The differences between journalists and influencers have become perennial sources of controversy and debate. The Knight Center e-book Content Creators and Journalists: Redefining News and Credibility in the Digital Age devotes three chapters to the topic, and it was also the subject of a panel discussion at the 26th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ).
“One of the biggest challenges to reconciling the role of influencers in journalism is that we still are thinking of influencers as separate from journalists,” Summer Harlow, associate director of the Knight Center and editor of the e-book, told LJR. “The rise of these digital content creators means we have to, once again, rethink what journalism is and who is a journalist. If they're doing journalism, why not call them journalists? Why call them influencers just because they are on social media?”
For those who choose to straddle the roles of journalist and influencer and begin creating content on their own social channels, one of the challenges is increased visibility—bringing with it the risk of both online attacks and legal action. There is also pressure to take positions and post about topics unrelated to journalism, something influencers aren’t always expected to do. Working as a journalist within a media organization, Hermann said, offers the benefit of editorial oversight and legal support.
“I’ve noticed that being a journalist means we’re always held to professional standards—even in our personal lives,” Hermann said. “You get comments like, ‘I can’t believe you, a journalist, are gossiping about celebrities,’ or ‘I can’t believe you, a journalist, are posting beach photos!’ There’s a segment of the public that sees journalism as a sacred calling, as if we can’t set aside our professional identity and enjoy a moment of levity. Today, it feels like only journalists are held to a standard of ethics and integrity that should be demanded of everyone—from politicians to freelancers to everyday citizens.”
Despite deciding to strike out on his own and create a YouTube channel after stints at O Globo, Veja, Época, Extra and Metrópoles, Amado said he does not see himself becoming an influencer.
“I don’t separate the two roles,” he said. “Most of the visibility I have today is still due to being a journalist.”
Journalist Guilherme Amado during a recording for his YouTube channel "amadomundo". (Youtube)
For amadomundo, the YouTube channel Amado said he will launch on June 23, he plans to present a mix of solo programming, interviews with other journalists and video podcasts hosted by news influencers covering politics, economics, business and culture. The team includes professionals from both journalism and digital content backgrounds. Five shows will debut with the channel launch, and three more are in development.
“One thing that changes is the constant effort to gain followers,” Amado said. “Now I talk about amadomundo with everyone—even the person who asked me for the time on the street, I told them about it. You become a preacher.”Hermann, meanwhile, believes in the power of community. She said it’s important for journalists who start producing independent content not to isolate themselves, but to build networks of support and collaboration.
“Be independent, but don’t isolate yourself,” she said. “The world is undergoing immense structural changes in every area. In times of upheaval, the only solution is a collective one.”
