The right dominates the online media ecosystem, seeping into sports, comedy, and other supposedly nonpolitical spaces
A new Media Matters analysis found 9 out of the 10 top online shows assessed are right-leaning
As Americans increasingly get their news from online shows and streamers, the influence of this media ecosystem becomes more prominent — and Media Matters has found that the most popular of this content is overwhelmingly right-leaning.
In a new study, Media Matters assessed the audience size of popular online shows — podcasts, streams, and other long-form audio and video content regularly posted online. To do so, we gathered data on the number of followers, subscribers, and views across streaming platforms (YouTube, Spotify, Rumble, Twitch, and Kick) and social media platforms that are used to amplify and promote these shows (Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok). Apple Podcasts does not publicly provide follower counts on its platform, so it was not included in the audience data.
This analysis was based on 320 online shows with a right-leaning or left-leaning ideological bent. We found that right-leaning online shows dominate the ecosystem, with substantially larger audiences on both politics/news shows and supposedly nonpolitical shows that we determined often platformed ideological content or guests.
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people who prefer to form their own opinions instead of having it spoonfed to them tend to not idolize the flapping faceholes on tv the way republican incels do
we also tend to cite our sources rather than say “do your own research”
What they mean: “Look up an article supporting your position on the web.”
What it should mean: “Test your hypothesis and get your findings peer reviewed and replicated.”
The main reason I don’t follow much left-leaning content online is because a lot of it is utterly depressing.
I’m sure there is a way to change the presentation of things to stop fueling doomerism without needing to outright sweep bad things under the rug.
Put more focus on the solutions than the issues, for a start. When covering the opposition, always do so by rightfully making fun of them as the clowns they indeed are. Picturing them as competent in any way indirectly gives them more power.
I personally don’t want another source of sadness and anger in my life, but I do want to be connected to other leftists and leftist ideas.
Last week tonight with John oliver hits the right spot for me.
The in-your-face topics of “society and culture” and “comedy” are close to evenly split.
The shows the right is dominating in are things like sports and wellness and spirituality with political sprinkles. The left didn’t even have one show in the article’s survey of those topics.
Left wing comedians like John Stuart, John Oliver, and Stephen colbert are the only way I’m staying sane. They deliver the worst of the news in a lighthearted manner.
They used subscriber count as a metric which is really stupid.
Peterson for example shows up with 23M for his total social media presence. His YT channel has 8.64M subscribers but he has become completely irrelevant and his videos average around 200k views with some exceptions.
View count is all that matters here if we are talking about political influence.
Also Rogan more than likely has a fucking ton of idle left wing subs. Dudes show was fucking great before he moved to Texas.
Trevor Noah has his own show?
This chart includes Youtube, Spotify, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
I fucking hate Joe rogan, man
Asmongold
Never seen a person say that they’re a centrist like 50 times, then go on to exclusively feature republicans, right wing channels, elon twitter simps, gamergate and just other clearly biased personalities. Wish he’d be more honest and say that he’s clearly aligned with the right
LOL that always seems to be the way centrist roll.
They’re conservatives but don’t like the stink of conservative politics.
I thought we all agreed ages ago “centrist” means frothing at the mouth racist who insists on the free market above all aka a 90s republican.
You might also call it “cultural hegemony”.
Oligarchs are buying up and controlling all media. When they control the media, they not only control the news, they can literally manufacture the news.
this is an interesting problem: let’s say that there’s 50 right leaning viewers and 50 left leaning viewers. let’s also say that the 50 left leaning viewers are spoiled for choice and get 50 different YouTubers they’re into, while the to right leaning viewers don’t get as many quality options and settle on 5 YouTubers. each of the 5 YouTubers that appeals to the right now dominate the rankings specifically because the field is weak
It’s not really a problem. Authoritarians need a few daddy figures while leftists prefer a variety of opinions.
I don’t think that’s what’s happening though? Your example implies that there are 10x more content creators on the left than on the right and that’s just not true.
Maybe the left is just less terminally online than the right.
Also not as heavily funded by the right-wing sponsors. Tim Pool is funded by Russia.
the city is back up, it’s a must, we outside
The “society and culture” and “comedy” topics are only slightly right-skewed, which seems representative of the US voting behavior with Republicans winning more elections but not by much.
The non-political topics with political sprinkles are interesting, and where the right overwhelms the left. People don’t listen to these shows because of the politics - they are there for the sports talk, or the discussion on getting and staying healthy, or for some inspiration and spiritual reflection - but the political sprinkles aren’t enough to drive them away. Does anyone see a path to a left-leaning host attracting significant audiences for mainly sports or wellness or spirituality, with occasional progressive sprinkles?
Not really, left leaning people always have the same problem: something that could reasonably called a set of morals (other than might makes right).
Your examples are toxic masculinity, diet grifters, and metaphysical grifters. It’s hard to square a sense of right and wrong with grifting.
I think you might be able to make inroads with women’s sports but…you need already toxic men to care.
You could make a diet show that does actual medicine, but the advice would be eat less, especially less meat and less alcohol. Eat green stuff instead. Go outside every day. Can’t make a long lasting show on this because it’s stable advice…this is why you need a grifter to make the show last, the content just doesn’t support the show.
Not gonna bother with metaphysical grifting, we get it.
Part of the problem is that telling the truth doesn’t really sell an identity. If you subscribe to some niche pseudoscience, then it can be your “thing” and you can form a bond with others who are into the same niche thing. Selling lies also allows you to craft the narrative to appeal to particular demographics and target audiences. Part of how the human brain functions is that doing insane things together with other people (ritualism) helps form a bond - the insanity is part of the design, to distinguish the in-group from the out-group. There’s also the problem that grifting makes money, and money lets you boost your signal and reach more people.
I have gotten a lot of social connections and philosophy learning through my congregation, consumed a variety of exercise safety and effectiveness tips, enjoyed discovering recipes that fit with my lifestyle and dietary preferences (many of which contribute healthy variety to my food intake), and get positive feelings finding spaces that share experiences and tips around specific health conditions I have. It’s sad to see all of those experiences cast as me being a victim of grifting.
I don’t listen to populist podcasts, I just read Wikipedia instead.
Russell Brand is right wing?
He never used to be…
Russell Brand’s evolution from left-wing comedian to podcast hero of the alt-right
I remember when he started his YouTube vlog he was a communist or at the very least a socialist, but I haven’t watched anything from him in like 10 years as I do not watch this personality based podcasts.
I guess the algorithm shapes the creators too, not just the viewers.