Influencers are pushing out reporters at the DNC. What does that mean for news?

2024 may go down as the first “influencer election” (we believe it will), and the creators who are part of that movement are facing a pivotal test. At the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, influencers are taking up space typically reserved for traditional media outlets. The result is an opportunity for those digital politicos to show they can be every bit as informative as other journalists.

According to a report from Reuters, the DNC credentialed more than 200 creators, giving them “a front row seat to history,” as White House Senior Director of Communications Matt Hill put it. The convention attendees can visit a creator lounge at the United Center, and they have been assigned floor space they can use to shoot videos.

@bbcnews For the first time, more than 200 content creators have been invited to the Democratic National Convention. #Influencer #Influencers #DemocraticNationalConvention #DNC #Content #ContentCreators #Democrats #KamalaHarris #Politics #USPolitics #USElection #News #BBCNews ♬ original sound – BBC News

That level of access has inspired creators, but other media members have spoken up about substandard accomodations at the convention. One traditional media journalist who spoke to Reuters claimed the 2024 DNC has the worst working conditions of the 20 conventions he has covered.

“We are restricted from going anywhere near the TV booths to interview people,” wrote The Independent White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg in a social media post. “And the seats/workspace they set aside are so high up that they are unsafe.”

Despite these gripes, the DNC’s pivot to creator-based coverage reflects shifting trends in the media landscape. A Pew study found that about half of U.S. TikTok users between the ages of 18 and 29 use the app to get news and stay up to date on political issues. Meanwhile, public distrust of the mainstream media is approaching all-time high levels, according to research firm Gallup

Some canny journalists have used those trends as an opportunity to bring TV-style news broadcasts to platforms like TikTok. But on the whole, there are questions about how impartial the new wave of political creators can be — and whether they possess the code of ethics that has traditionally formed the backbone of the journalistic profession.

“I am heavily partisan,” influencer Josh Helfgott told Reuters. “There’s no question that the creators here that are invited are supportive of Kamala, mostly, at least all the ones I’ve met.”

President Joe Biden recognized those questions when he invited nearly 100 influencers and adjacent experts to Washington for the inaugural White House Creator Economy Conference. While addressing the assembled influencers, Biden made sure they “understand that you have an obligation to record what you think is true, and say what you think is true.”

“I’ve been around a long time, and it’s never been this bad before,” the President added. “It’s getting incredibly difficult to count the number of lies people hear. They don’t know what to believe, they don’t know what to count on. But you break through in ways that I think are going to change the entire dynamic of the way in which we communicate. That’s why I invited you to the White House.”

The irony is that the people who are in the best position to recognize and call out creators’ fuzzy ethics — journalists at traditional media outlets — are ceding convention space to those exact creators. Therefore, the people leading the vanguard of the “influencer election” must take it upon themselves to stay devoted to the truth. Creator backlash to the U.S. government’s anti-TikTok legislation demonstrated that young voices on social media are willing to stick up for their morals and values. Now, they must do exactly that.