Summary

The “Rogansphere,” a sprawling ecosystem of podcasts and online shows led by figures like Joe Rogan, has become a powerful cultural force for younger audiences, functioning as a “Fox News for the young.”

With its mix of anti-establishment rhetoric, distrust of Democrats, and casual conversations blending left-leaning and conservative ideas, it normalizes figures like Donald Trump for a disillusioned, lonely audience—particularly young men.

Democrats risk underestimating its influence, as this ecosystem fosters deep listener loyalty and has contributed to a significant shift in young male voters toward Trump.

  • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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    4 days ago

    I like Galloway’s analysis here: https://www.profgalloway.com/the-podcast-election/

    I am going on AC360/MSNBC/Smerconish to discuss the male vote — this election gave us the opposite of the expected referendum on bodily autonomy; it was the Testosterone Election. The only thing I’m (fairly) certain of is what medium played a pivotal role, for the first time, in young people’s decision to violently pivot to Trump: podcasts.

    Almost half of adult Americans, 136 million people, listen to at least one podcast a month. The global audience is now 505 million, a quarter of the internet’s reach.

    Rogan has 16 million Spotify subscribers and can reach many more people across a variety of other platforms: In just three days after the live podcast, his three-hour-long conversation with Trump was viewed 40 million times on YouTube.

    By comparison, when Trump appeared on Fox News’ Gutfeld!, which averages about 3 million viewers, he reached 5 million people, and the full episode has been viewed 2.3 million times on YouTube.

    Among Fox’s 3.5 million regular viewers, 70% are 50 and over and 45% are women. The No. 2 cable network, MSNBC, reaches 1.5 million viewers most days; its median viewer is a 70-year-old woman. So: a big audience of young men vs. a small audience of older women. People listen to pods to learn; they watch cable TV to sanctify what they already believe. The former is (much) more appealing to candidates and advertisers.

    Rogan’s demographic is 80% male, 93% under 54, and 56% under 34. Men under 34 are the Great White Rhinos of advertising, the most valuable beast in the consumer jungle, and they’re increasingly difficult to find.

    He also mentioned in a CNN interview: “Look at the top 10 podcasts. 8 of them lean right, and Trump went on 6 of them.”

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Don’t a lot of people who listen to podcasts do so while driving? If so, this is eerily similar to how conservative AM radio brainwashed people who drove a lot, especially in remote areas where FM radio with music wasn’t available.

      • Curiousfur@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        And the people bankrolling these podcasts, or at least sponsoring them to push a slant to the right, are fully aware of the similarities. It’s why they do it, they already did the math.

          • Curiousfur@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            No, if they run ads, they are sponsored. A handyman is self employed. I don’t stop working to thank DeWalt or Snap-on for providing my tools, I bought them myself.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              2 days ago

              The ads a handyman chooses to run on the side of their truck are their responsibility. Noone is forced to sell out.

              • Curiousfur@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                You are missing the point of my original comment, there are podcasts that do get sponsored by conservative or hard right/religious right money that are filling the same niche that AM radio used to, and they are being sponsored because the right knows that it works because they already did the same thing with AM radio.

                As an aside, I have never seen a handyman with an ad for a sponsor on their vehicle, ever. Maybe an ad for their own business, but that’s how a service industry works, you need to advertise yourself. Podcasters are entertainers or influencers, and in our economic system, if your income isn’t directly generated by the work you do (service), then it is given to you to perform or advertise (entertainment). An entertainer doesn’t work for their audience. They put in work to gain and keep an audience, but no one person in the audience has the ability to tell an entertainer what to do or say, that power solely covers from the group that pays that entertainer to entertain. The owner of a venue pays a comedian or band, you pay the venue to be allowed to be entertained at that venue. The venue decides what content they put on stage because it can become associated with their brand. Patreon does allow people to directly support podcasters, yes, but if you run ads at all, you are beholden to their terms in order to continue receiving payment. It is statistically improbable that the vast majority of conservative leaning podcasters are either self funded or entirely crowd funded, just like most influencers. Those cross country Van-Lifers are largely either independently wealthy or sponsored by the brands they showcase, serving as an advertisement to their viewers, many of whom are also wealthier. Podcast hosting has a similar barrier to entry as being a SoundCloud hip-hop artist or maybe a country singer, a computer and maybe a camera, so anybody can do for extra income if there are brands or causes willing to actually make it worth the effort to do

                • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 days ago

                  Thats an awfully long winded way of saying its not the podcasters responsibility or fault for what is included in their content.

                  Sorry I disagree.