The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities.

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Our analysis also finds that respondents who name a person as the first news influencer who comes to mind have closer ties, in general, to the influencers they get news from.

Among respondents who named a person in response to our open-ended question, 72% report following or subscribing to a news influencer on social media. By comparison, among those who did not name a person or did not respond to the question, only 45% say the same. The rise of algorithmic feeds, which often deliver posts to users from outside their follower list, could be one explanation for why some people say they regularly get news from news influencers without following any.

Respondents who named a person also are more likely than other respondents to report feeling a personal connection to a news influencer: 39% say this, compared with 23% of those who did not name a person or did not respond to the question.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline, and its methodology.