More Americans get news from social media influencers [Video]

About 1 in 5 Americans say they regularly get their news from “news influencers” on social media, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

The rise of social media personalities doling out information was particularly true among the youngest users, and comes at a time of heightened polarization surrounding the U.S. presidential election.

“We thought about news influencers as sources of authority to their audiences about what’s happening in the world,” Galen Stocking, a senior computational social scientist at the Pew Research Center, told CNBC. “And one thing we found when doing that, 65% said that they found the information they got from news influencers helps them better understand the world.”

Close to 40% of adults under 30 who were included in the study said they stay informed from independent social media figures, the largest chunk of any age group.

Democratic strategist and Columbia professor Basil Smikle said that shift has been playing out since at least …