Popular sources are written to inform, entertain, or persuade the general public. They can be objective, like news pieces, or subjective such as editorials or opinion pieces. Since they are meant to be accessible to the general public, they are usually shorter in length than academic sources and contain far less discipline specific jargon. They can be written by anyone from journalists and free lance writer to a hobbyist with an internet blog or popular tiktok account!
When using popular sources, it is important to remember that they are not edited as closely as more scholarly sources - you may need to verify the information you learn from them more closely. One way to verify the information in a popular resource is to see if the author cites their sources. In most popular articles there is not a specific works cited page, but authors will often link or mention their referenced works within the article. You can then follow those links or look up those sources to double check if the information is credible.