As Americans get an increasingly overwhelming amount of news content online in different forms, Pew Research Center set out to study who Americans consider “journalists” — and why. From April 14-20, 2025, they surveyed 9,397 U.S. adults on their views of journalists and online news.
What they found:
The ideal journalist / news provider is honest, intelligent, and accurate; popularity, charisma, and humor matter little. While a full 93% of Americans said it’s important that journalists display “honesty” in their work, followed by intelligence (89%) and authenticity (82%), just 11% said “popularity” was important. “Humor” (35% important) and charisma (33% important) also ranked low.
Americans are most likely to think those working for “traditional” outlets – like newspaper writers, TV reporters, and radio reporters – are journalists, over those who post on social media about news. Majorities considered those who write for a newspaper/news website (79%), and those who report/host a TV news show (65%) or radio news show (59%), as journalists. Americans were more unsure whether to consider those who report on or host a news podcast, or who write their own newsletter about news, journalists – but decidedly do not consider those who make their own videos or posts about news on social media journalists.
Most Americans (59%) think journalists are highly important for the well-being of society… but far more say journalists are losing influence in society (49%) than gaining it (15%).
Half of Americans think it’s acceptable for journalists to advocate for the communities they report on, but don’t think it’s acceptable for them to express their political views or religious beliefs while reporting. 51% agreed it’s always or usually acceptable for journalists to advocate for the communities they’re covering, but just 13% said it was ok for them to express their political or religious views while doing so.
This means that Americans, overall, still value traditional news and reporting style – and still look for honesty, integrity, and accuracy over entertainment or personal commentary when it comes to their news.
