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Lexi Overstreet wanted to see the January 6 hearings. But he worried that he didn’t know enough to follow.
“I wanted an excuse to research and research subjects,” Overstreet said. “And I realized, oh, if I’m going to explain this to somebody else … then I have to understand it a lot better.”
So the 27-year-old from Portland, Oregon, activated her TikTok account. But instead of the political race videos he usually makes, he decided to produce clips summarizing the hearings for his 1,257 followers. Her videos, ranging from 24 seconds to about a minute in length, offer quick, to-the-point versions of the day’s events with photos of key players shown behind her.
She is not the only one. Through popular social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Twitch, young people are telling audiences. One influencer filled out a bingo card of the “top Republican distractions” at the hearings, another commented on the hearings with an animated talking statue.
Some conservative creators have also touched audiences. One compared audience ratings to regularly scheduled programming. Christy McLaughlin, a 26-year-old congressional candidate from Florida, took to TikTok to blast Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as a RINO, or Republican in name only. But most collectors tend to be liberal.
Cheney claims Trump said on Jan. 6 that Pence “deserves” to be hanged
Content creators say their peers turn to them because of their approachable approach. “When I break down the funniest, most easy-to-listen parts, my hope is that it encourages some of my followers to watch it more or watch it for themselves,” said another creator, 23-year-old Emma Silverman.
In her recent recap of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony, Silverstreet covered her mouth in mock surprise as Hutchinson testified in a video that plays behind her that Trump threw her lunch.
“Believe it or not, that’s not even the most baffling thing Trump does that she’s describing,” adds Silverstreet. At the end of the video, he implores others to come back and watch the full hearings: “It’s extremely powerful.” The video has about 1,000 comments and 26,000 likes.
Millions of young people have been paying attention to the work of the Jan. 6 committee: A recent Monmouth poll found that about half of Americans under the age of 35 have been following them a lot or a little. Some are watching the sessions on TV in real time, but others say they’re following along via social or traditional media.
“This is definitely the Watergate of our generation,” said another creator, Myca Hinton, 22, who started using TikTok to watch funny videos to pass the time during the pandemic, but went on to create her own own videos to quench his voracious interest in politics.
“My American government teachers in high school definitely helped me find my interest in politics and encouraged me,” Hinton said.
To find topics to talk about in her videos, Hinton subscribes to several major newsletters and publications and will pick three or four topics to cover, gravitating toward what’s most interesting and what people are talking about on social media. One of his recent videos is about the Walgreens boycott over reports that the pharmacy was denying birth control to some customers.
For hearings, you will see them live. “I take notes, go over my notes, and consolidate my findings into something that I think is easy to follow to explain in a video,” Hinton said.
Hinton said she’s gotten good comments from commenters (including her metallic green eye makeup).
“For the most part, I would say it’s overwhelmingly positive and people are asking the right questions,” Hinton said.
These types of recap videos, which are also popular on other platforms like YouTube, thrive online because of the “parasocial” relationship the viewer has with the audience, said Shannon McGregor, assistant professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. .
By watching a particular person’s content, the viewer can feel like they know that creator personally, McGregor said. With that comes “a sense of closeness and a greater likelihood of trusting or acting on information that comes from those people,” he said.
But there are also downsides, McGregor said. It is easier to spread inaccurate or incomplete information. Many of the creators say they work hard to avoid this. Silverman, from Austin, reads articles from major media outlets and cites their sources in his videos. He also tries to use video clips of the hearings he finds on Congress.gov to help add credibility to his summaries.
“My main goal behind my channel was to remove the misinformation that was being spread by the media,” Silverman said.
Creators hope their recaps will bring the highlights to a new, younger TikTok audience.
“I think it’s really important to talk about it on the app, because the more people are aware of what’s going on, the more interested they are in it,” Silverman said. “The more they get involved, the more pressure there is on the authorities to impose consequences on the people involved.”