The world of information has radically transformed right under our noses.
Today, fewer people get their news from traditional print, broadcast, or even web outlets than before, turning instead to independent social media content creators. This shift is more pronounced in young people and the Global South, but it is happening across geographies and demographics.
The rapid ascent of these “news creators” has worried media outlets. Responding to a survey by the Reuters Institute of Journalism, more than 70% of newsrooms expressed concern that such creators are capturing attention away from publishers. This rise has combined with growing numbers chatting with AI to consume news, to create a near existential crisis for journalism.
Only a third of the digital newsroom leaders surveyed say they feel confident about the prospects for journalism in 2026. Unfortunately, this is particularly true of climate change reportage, with global coverage falling by 14% last year and publications like the Washington Post gutting their climate teams.
Climate organisations and newsrooms can mount a response. They should partner with like-minded news creators, lending legitimacy to both parties.
Because the shift is one of trust as well as attention, stressed Arun Venkataraman, Google News Initiative’s global lead of emerging news voices and research. At a February event on news in the digital age, he told us that creators are growing in popularity because of their perceived authenticity, transparency and credibility. Audiences, especially young people, flock to content made by these individuals because they are perceived to have more transparent intentions than organisations, Venkataraman noted.
In some Global South countries, creators are already the dominant provider of information today. Climate deniers and fossil fuel companies understand and have been leveraging this.
The fossil fuel industry has seized on the importance of content creators
A 2025 analysis by Yale Climate Connections found that eight of the ten most popular online shows in the US had spread misinformation about climate change, with some having received heavy investment from fracking billionaires.
These methods are not limited to the Global North. Jusper Machogu, a Kenyan farmer with more than 28,000 followers on X, advocates for fossil fuels on the platform, declaring: “We have 99 problems but climate change isn’t one!” The BBC reported that he has received thousands of dollars in donations, some of which came from people in Western countries linked to fossil-fuel interests.
These aren’t isolated right-wing nuts. What has been assiduously built is an entire global ecosystem of online content creators enabling climate delay paid for by fossil fuel companies. There exists a social media infrastructure of misinformation which springs into action around extreme weather events, according to a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
A 2023 investigation by DeSmog found instances of more than 100 influencers being paid to promote fossil fuel firms worldwide since 2017, ranging from Filipina “granfluencer” Nora Capistrano Sangalang to British inventor and engineer Colin Furze.
Many of these partnerships focus on the firms’ lower-carbon initiatives, despite them making up a marginal amount of total investment. Meanwhile, some of these firms have dropped their renewables targets.
In the year leading up to the COP30 climate conference in Brazil, DeSmog revealed at least 195 influencers posted Instagram content sponsored by 10 of the world’s biggest livestock, fertiliser and food companies. These people have millions of followers collectively. Eva Morel, general secretary of the media think-tank QuotaClimat, told Desmog that the surge of such sponsorships was not surprising, but “the sheer volume… is concerning and calls for heightened vigilance from policymakers”.
The impact is substantial. A CCDH poll found that 43% of adults and 56% of teenagers who reported high use of social media agreed with climate change conspiracies. Is it any wonder that climate denial is on the rise?
How can climate communicators partner with creators?
On the other end of the information spectrum, traditional climate communicators – working at sustainable businesses, PR agencies and NGOs – remain stuck in the same LinkedIn conversations about Scope 3 emissions, or webinars and report launches that only reach each other. It’s clear something needs to change.
Newsroom consultancy FT Strategies worked with the Google News Initiative and the World Association of News Publishers to produce a report on creators, outlining their needs and concerns with the current system they work within. They wanted stronger access to fact-checking tools, as well as clearer guidance on covering news and civic issues. They also spoke about facing financial struggles and uncertainty due to platforms’ unpredictable algorithms impacting the reach and monetisation of their content.
These are all things that climate communication organisations can provide support for. Experts on such teams have a deep understanding of climate impacts and solutions. Marketing budgets can support creators. The credibility of an organisation can provide vital recognition to creators and their work, and vice versa.
By working with a diverse range of creators, climate communicators can break through echo chambers and reach new audiences. NGOs working on agriculture, for instance, could train food creators on how to talk about and reduce the carbon footprint of their recipes. Campaigners working on aviation emissions could work with travel vloggers to write lower-emission itineraries focussed on ground transport. These partnerships could unlock new forms of action from the “silent majority” – people who want more government action on climate change, but have yet to speak up.
Newsrooms are well positioned to partner with creators. Surveys show journalists feel displaced by creators, and creators feel misunderstood by journalists. But the two roles are naturally complementary. The right newsroom-creator partnerships can help journalists reach audiences and rebuild trust, while offering creators the financial and informational support of a newsroom. These can uplift voices producing good work, while raising the bar for the social media space as a whole.
Organisations that invest in these forms of partnership will receive more than just dynamic, engaging content. They will find their reach amplified beyond the climate bubble, and trust in their work strengthened by the endorsement of a recognisable online face.
Social media tools mean that more voices than ever are clamouring to be heard, and the slow breakdown of legacy media may well continue to create room for AI-accelerated, fossil-fuelled, inflammatory misinformation to grow and spread. But partnerships between truth-telling organisations and social media content creators could create and nourish communities online that push for climate action.
There have been small pilot initiatives, but they face up against an enormous volume of fossil-fuelled creator content. There is a clear, urgent need for an equivalent creator ecosystem for climate science and solutions. We must start somewhere.
