STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Mainstream journalists are not the only ones with press credentials at the Democratic Convention. For the first time, social media influencers have convention press passes, too. Prominent influencers include Hasan Piker, who has over 2.7 million followers on Twitch.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HASAN PIKER: Do you think we should vote blue no matter who - genuine question? It don't matter. Do whatever you want. Definitely vote, though, especially down ballot and especially for your local elections. Participate in the Democratic process. That is very meaningful.
INSKEEP: One of the messages from influencers. Wired magazine's Makena Kelly has been covering political influencers since 2018, and she is at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. I assume you have a press pass, right?
MAKENA KELLY: I do, yep. It's kind of similar accreditation to what many of those influencers have.
INSKEEP: OK. Is there any clear line between an influencer and a traditional journalist?
KELLY: I think that line is getting blurrier the more time passes, especially during this election. I think the main difference between a news influencer and a journalist like myself and you is that we do reporting, right? We are part of the process of digging up new information. Whereas a lot of what news influencers do is taking headlines - screen grabs of them - and sitting in front of them green-screen style and reading off the news to their followers.
INSKEEP: That's a fair point. And in some cases, what they're saying is, here is something the media will not tell you. And then they cite the article, or they (laughter) read from the...
KELLY: Yep.
INSKEEP: ...Article that the media told them. With that said, though, they have huge audiences and can speak credibly to people - especially younger people - in a way that maybe a lot of journalists can't. Isn't that right?
KELLY: Yes. And I think that's exactly what the Democrats are hoping to do by bringing around - I think it's 200 influencers who are here and credentialed for this convention. And again, the RNC also had creators at their convention as well, but that was only about 70 of them. So this is definitely an important voting bloc to both parties, and they see these influencers as a significant part in their strategy to reach them.
INSKEEP: Have you been sampling some of their content?
KELLY: Yes, I have. Yesterday, I followed a couple of folks around. There is a news creator named Philip DeFranco who has millions of followers. He's, like, an OG YouTuber. And I went up into the broadcast suite that they have opened up for creators that they can book time, you know, similar to what CNN and Fox News have. And I followed Representative Ro Khanna from California up there. And they just had this interview setup where Philly was able to record, you know, this thing for his own show that will probably go up later this week.
Hasan Piker - of course, that you just brought up - I followed him around, too. And he brought his cameras upstairs in this broadcast studio and just sat with lawmakers for, you know, maybe 15, 20 minutes and had those kinds of conversations which you clipped at the beginning.
INSKEEP: Are they being co-opted by the Democrats, or are these independent people who are bringing their own questions and their own opinions?
KELLY: Yeah, I mean, co-opted - I'm not sure if that's really the right word for it. But these people have been - many of them have been at this for a very long time. Philip DeFranco, like I just mentioned, he has been doing this since, like, the beginning of YouTube in the 2000s - the early 2000s. And Hasan, he's been doing this for several years as well.
But I think the main difference here is that a lot of these influencers just aren't as critical of the administration, of the campaigns as traditional journalists would be. For example, yesterday, I met a food reviewer who was supposed to be here at the DNC. And I saw him around the floor, and I asked him, OK, what question are you asking these people? And he said, well, I'm asking lawmakers what they think Kamala Harris and Trump would be if they were food dishes.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) Well, I guess it would get interesting responses. With that said, I want to acknowledge it says right in the Constitution, you need no qualifications whatsoever, basically, to be a member of the press. So in that sense, I mean, welcome to them. I mean, it's one more set of voices, and we'll see what they do.
KELLY: Right. And I think similar to - the bloggers were brought in during the Bush administration, I'm - I like to be optimistic about these things. And when I look at what these news creators are doing, I think that us as journalists can probably take a lot of lessons from them, especially when it comes to community building.
INSKEEP: Makena Kelly of Wired, thanks so much.
KELLY: Of course, yeah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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