TL;DR
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South Africa is a mobile-first market, with studies finding 67% of surveyed English-speaking news consumers accessing news via smartphones and 98.2% of surveyed internet users active on social media. The most-used platforms are TikTok and the Meta platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Messenger), with LinkedIn and X also reaching at least half of internet users.
These platforms all make it possible for indie info providers to reach large audiences even without institutional backing. At the same time, social media platforms act as gatekeepers, restricting access to audience data and controlling content visibility. Like legacy journalism outlets, indie info providers rely on global distribution platforms to share their content. Indie info providers are tied to, and often financially dependent on, platforms operating with opaque algorithms. The unpredictability of these systems makes it difficult for indie info providers to build a stable, reliable income. Moreover, studies show that content moderation frequently disproportionately impacts Global Majority countries, especially when content is not in English or addresses sensitive political topics. While these concerns are not unique to indie info providers or to South Africa, interviewees said that these dynamics impact their work directly.
How and why we did this
Note on terminology
There is no consensus on terminology, even among our interviewees. We primarily use the term “indie info provider” and sometimes “creator-journalist,” which was the term used in our survey and interviews. Both terms appear throughout the report to refer to the same group: “people who are working to provide verified factual information with a personality- or voice-driven brand that leverages the creator economy.” That definition encompasses a tremendous amount of variation.
Why we did this
This is the second report in a two-country series about indie info providers.
According to our research, about one in four people in South Africa get news from individuals rather than organizations.
Moreover, the South African media environment is undergoing a profound transformation. Media crises in recent decades have led to “an increasingly constrained business environment,” forcing outlets to rely on freelance journalists and short-term contracts to stay afloat and leaving many journalists without stable employment. This shift has coincided with a massive migration in audience habits: recent surveys find that about 7 in 10 surveyed (online, English-speaking) South Africans get their news from social media, especially on their smartphones.
To date, research on this trend has largely focused on the broader landscape of content creators, including entertainers, politicians and other creators who do not necessarily focus on informing their audiences. And most research to date has focused on content sourcing and linking strategies. To enable a future for a plurality of fact-based sources that readers and viewers find relevant, our project sheds light on who indie info providers are and how they approach their role in the broader news landscape.
How we did this
In partnership with Code for Africa, CNTI recruited 43 content producers in South Africa to take a screening survey, 42 of whom met the eligibility criteria, and chose 18 of them for a 60- to 90-minute virtual interview. (The one who did not meet the criteria was neither South African-based nor working for a primarily South African audience.) CNTI selected interviewees to represent a range of professional backgrounds, such as project management and the military, beyond legacy journalism. This report is based primarily on insights from the interviews, with data from the survey as a secondary source.
In interviews, we asked participants about their backgrounds and motivations, audience engagement, their relationships with other indie info providers and legacy news outlets, platforms, and algorithms, revenue and business strategies, and their view of success and satisfaction with their own work.
We developed codes using a bottom-up iterative approach as themes emerged from the analysis. Code categories largely reflected the range of interview topics, as well as the addition of the broader theme “apartheid and historical context.”
These methods provide richness and depth; however, it’s not possible to generalize about the frequency of behaviors from these interactions, so we limit our use of quantitative terms to our interviewees throughout this report.
CNTI research and professional staff prepared this report. This project was made possible by the financial support of the Lenfest Institute and a second anonymous donor.
See “About this study” for more details.
South African indie info providers predominantly use mobile-friendly platforms, reflecting the country’s high smartphone adoption and social media use.
Interviewees reported they use YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn the most. This distribution largely mirrors the most popular social media platforms in South Africa more broadly. Newsletter platforms such as Substack and Beehiiv, often designed with computer users in mind, were only mentioned by three interviewees. (In contrast, nearly all U.S. interviewees use at least one of these platforms.)
Nearly all interviewees do have websites, but they serve as a primary distribution platform for only a few. For most, websites function more like a portfolio, offering an archive, a source of credibility or a booking page. This is especially true for those who do a lot of freelance work for other outlets.
The higher mobile use and lower laptop and personal computer use impacts which platforms indie info providers prioritize. Not only do South Africans actively use video-first formats for entertainment, they also use them to follow news. A 2025 study found that 42% of the sampled South African population reported using YouTube for news — well above the global average of 21%. TikTok is also growing quickly as a news consumption platform: the same survey showed 33% of respondents in South Africa using TikTok for news consumption compared to the global average of 10%.
Deep dive: reflections on individual platforms
Instagram and Facebook are important platforms for participants; for many, it is almost a given that they are on them. Studies show high usage of these platforms, with 88.6% of South African internet users on Facebook and 71.4% on Instagram.
YouTube is an important platform for many interviewees, especially those with long-form video content. As one described it, “Look, it’s got its flaws, but [YouTube] is a system that was built with video in mind … It’s designed for longer viewing, which works well for our format.”
LinkedIn is an important platform for those with a specialized or professional audience.
TikTok is a relative bright spot as multiple interviewees reported their accounts were doing well on the platform. This reflects multiple studies that indicate that TikTok is seeing steady growth among South African users.
For many interviewees, WhatsApp is an essential app to connect with their audiences. One interviewee shares a digital newspaper via the app and uses a WhatsApp channel to stay connected with their audience. WhatsApp is indeed one of the primary communication apps used in South Africa, with 93.9% of internet users on it.
X (formerly Twitter) is an important platform for many interviewees, although several expressed discontent over changes in the platform. As one interviewee said, “I personally built my brand on Twitter right before it became this complete swamp … what is my luck that that is the one platform that has gotten so trashed?”
For some, navigating social media algorithms and rapidly changing technology reinforces the overall uncertainty of their chosen career.
Many interviewees feel ill-equipped to handle social media. For some, relying on the platforms feels especially risky. They described algorithms as invisible gatekeepers, such that “you think that you’re having an influence over what you’re saying and how you’re reaching people, but algorithms are having a lot more influence than you are.” For some interviewees, the lack of transparency of the most popular platforms is a source of stress. They described the experience as putting faith in a technology that felt fundamentally unknowable. Memorably, one interviewee described it this way:
Hopefully, the cold clinical eye of the algorithm sees you and then pushes you to the top of the list, but you just don’t know.”
The rapid pace of technological change can be an additional source of uncertainty. “At my age, I wouldn’t describe myself as being well prepared for the social media array,” one interviewee said. “I mean, I think I’m reasonably competent now from a technological point of view … I’m getting better at it, but I wasn’t prepared for it.” On the other hand, at least one interviewee finds technical change a helpful way to improve their professional skills. Not only do they feel prepared, but they said learning how to hook people quickly has improved their journalism.
To offset risk from unpredictable algorithms, interviewees use multiple platforms.
Half of the South African interviewees manage a presence on six or more platforms. Doing so requires a significant time commitment, as they frequently tailor content to suit specific formats and audiences.
For example, one interviewee said they will adapt catchy soundbites from their podcast for different channels while maintaining a consistent brand identity. While interviewees noted that text content can remain largely similar across platforms, images and video require a more specialized approach because each platform prioritizes different types of content.
For a small number of interviewees, the ultimate goal across these platforms is to drive traffic back to their main website. Websites are not just a repository of credibility for these info providers; they are also a source of direct revenue through advertising and sponsorships. As one interviewee explained, the website “gives us that validity to, ‘Tada! Look what we did!’” even though social media platforms are “where the eyes are.”
For many interviewees, it is clear which platforms are performing best, but specific factors driving the differences remain unknown. For example, one interviewee noted they were pleased that Instagram had recently begun distributing their content more widely, but did not know why. Another interviewee saw their content performing consistently across most platforms, but described YouTube as an “anomaly” for audience engagement.
Interviewees also raised concerns about unpredictability within platforms, not just across them. For example, one interviewee described how videos might perform well on Facebook one day, but photos or text generated more engagement the next. These engagement changes seem to depend on the time of day or day of the week when content was posted, rather than on any changes to the content itself.
Several interviewees called out external private ownership of the platforms as a factor contributing to uncertainty about algorithms and monetization. They don’t want to “build on rented land” or “move from TikTok to another platform owned by someone.” Moreover, they see their motivation — providing high-quality information — as inconsistent with the motivations driving major platform companies:
It’s very challenging to work in an environment where the algorithms are so opaque, and we know big tech is not necessarily there about helping information integrity but more about engagement.”
Instead, being on multiple platforms is a strategy to lower this risk. “You’ve got to exist on every single platform equally if you can” to weather the storms of unpredictability. Moreover, the unpredictability of platforms is not just an indie info provider problem. The impact of platforms in the information space is widespread, and legacy news outlets have also become reliant on traffic from social media platforms.
Interviewees report experiencing shadowbanning and overmoderation.
Interviewees described facing content deletion and shadowbanning, often triggered by specific topics. They have seen some platforms differentially delete viewpoints that are widely held in South Africa, which may be related to the fact that none of the major platforms are headquartered there. Among other topics, interviewees said that content about Gaza had been deleted on multiple platforms. While South Africa officially recognizes a genocide in Palestine, the issue is deeply polarizing in the U.S., where many of these platforms are based. Some reports suggest related content is being suppressed on multiple platforms, though whether this affects all viewpoints equally remains up for debate. Similarly, one interviewee noted that shadowbanning was common for users who post anything on X (Twitter) that is critical of owner Elon Musk or his conspiracy theories, a claim supported by multiple studies.
In addition, some interviewees reported experiencing over-moderation. For example, one interviewee received “a very stern letter saying that I was engaging in fake news” after posting a piece of fiction about mermaids.
These challenges are not unique to South Africa: content moderation norms are typically developed in a single country for a single language and particular cultural context, then applied universally — even though discourse norms are always culturally situated. For indie info providers, this landscape creates a precarious situation. Visibility is essential for those who depend on income generated through ad revenue or event attendance, yet platforms rarely explain how their algorithms work, leaving creators to guess which words or topics might trigger a shadowban from one day to the next. To stay visible and financially afloat, they may feel pressured to avoid certain subjects or soften their coverage, undermining their independence.
Deep dive: Bad experiences online can be further compounded by misogyny and racism.
South African indie info providers reported facing significant hostility online, especially when addressing sensitive topics like racism, gender-based violence and politics. One interviewee reported being “mass-reported” across multiple accounts after sharing a story about racism in schools. Instead of receiving support from the platform, they were issued a content warning. This interviewee faced race- and gender-based abuse, leading them to adopt a strict blocking policy. They noted that, “When you’re a woman online saying what you think, men become rabid and horrible and abusive just in general.” They were not the only interviewee to experience under-moderation; someone else walked away from a relatively large following on X because “I would repeatedly flag blatantly racist things, blatantly sexist and nothing would happen.”
Interactions with viewers often turn toxic, particularly in the political sphere. One participant said they handle this by only responding to questions they feel are valid, while another highlighted the “vitriolic” nature of political commentary. This interviewee observed that the intense passion and threats of violence found online rarely manifest in offline public spaces. This issue reflects the deep political divisions within South Africa, which are mirrored in the comment sections of the indie info providers’ content.
What the U.S. can learn from South Africa
In both countries, interviewees manage risk and dependency by maintaining a presence on multiple platforms. South African interviewees rely primarily on mobile-first social platforms, while U.S. interviewees are more likely to prioritize newsletters and websites where they have more direct access to their audiences. These differences reflect the countries’ respective infrastructure as well as distinct barriers to monetization. In both cases, interviewees are thinking strategically about who they want to reach and where to find them.
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