I discussed most of this article during the most recent episode of my podcast, Dylan’s Public Journal. You can find all episodes on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Have you been wondering, “How did we get to where we are now, as a society?” Is it the internet, social media, or these glowing rectangles in our hands? Unfortunately, nothing is black and white, so it’s impossible to pinpoint just one reason why we are where we are today.

Media Matters for America, a web-based nonprofit, progressive research and information center, monitors, analyzes, and corrects misinformation in the United States media. On March 14, they published an article on the online media ecosystem, which showed the alarming dominance of right-wing opinions. Their analysis assessed 9 out of the 10 top online shows as right-leaning.

How did the media landscape become so one-sided? Where can it possibly go from here? Let’s start with the facts.

The Podcast Election

Many dubbed the 2024 presidential election as the “podcast election” — in part because President Donald Trump, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and their vice presidential picks made various appearances on podcasts and online shows as candidates.

At Trump’s election victory party on November 5, UFC President Dana White praised several podcasters for their role in helping to get Trump elected, saying, “I want to thank the boys Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' with the Boys. And last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.”

Podcasts and online shows have become increasingly popular; in fact, they’ve also become trustworthy news sources. The number of people listening to podcasts monthly has reportedly more than doubled since 2016. According to a 2023 Pew Research study, 87% of people who hear news discussed on podcasts said they expect it to be mostly accurate and 31% said they trust podcasts more than other news sources.

In August 2024 — just a few months before Election Day — Pew found that about 1 in 5 Americans said they regularly get news from influencers on social media. The weekly reach of large online shows is also reportedly better than that of many cable networks.

With Americans increasingly receiving their news from these sources, new media played a significant role in the 2024 election. By appearing on these shows ahead of the 2024 election, Trump reached an audience of 23.5 million American adults in an average week — compared to Harris’ 6.4 million — according to Edison Podcast Metrics.

Journalists have started to highlight the asymmetry of the online media ecosystem. Bloomberg watched and analyzed over 2,000 videos — nearly 1,300 hours of footage — from nine prominent YouTubers, including Adin Ross, Joe Rogan, Logan Paul, Theo Von, and Patrick Bet-David, and found that “above all, the broadcasters described American men as victims of a Democratic campaign to strip them of their power,” though “none of the broadcasters style themselves as political pundits.”

Analysis of the New Media Ecosystem

As Americans increasingly get their news from online shows and streamers, the influence of this media ecosystem becomes more prominent — and Media Matters 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, they 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.

Media Matters based their analysis on 320 online shows with a right-leaning or left-leaning ideological bent. They found that right-leaning online shows dominate the ecosystem, with substantially larger audiences on both politics/news shows and supposedly “nonpolitical” shows often platformed ideological content or guests.

Across platforms — YouTube, Rumble, Twitch, Kick, Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — right-leaning online shows accounted for roughly 82% of the total following of the online shows assessed.

Nine out of the 10 online shows with the largest followings across platforms were right-leaning, with a total following of more than 197 million. The only left-leaning show among the top 10 was What Now? with Trevor Noah, which possessed 21.1 million total followers and subscribers across platforms.

Additionally, their analysis – which looked entirely at shows with an ideological bent — found over a third self-identify as nonpolitical, even though 72% of those shows were determined to be right-leaning. Instead, these shows describe themselves as comedy, entertainment, sports, or put themselves in other supposedly nonpolitical categories.

Top Shows of the Right

Nine of the 10 online shows from the study with the largest total following across platforms were right-leaning, accounting for at least 197 million total followers and subscribers. These are the online shows of: Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, Theo Von, Charlie Kirk, Nelk Boys’ Full Send Podcast, Candace Owens, and Dr. Phil. The only left-leaning show among the top 10 was What Now? with Trevor Noah, with over 21.1 million total followers and subscribers.

Of these most-followed right-leaning online shows, only 4 are categorized on Apple Podcasts as news and politics, while Rogan, Von, and Full Send are characterized as comedy, Peterson as education, and Dr. Phil as society and culture.

While these podcasts often host celebrity guests like Timothée Chalamet, MrBeast, and Luke Bryan, these 5 right-leaning comedy, education, and society and culture shows have also had dozens of episodes featuring right-wing media figures and politicians since October 1, 2024.

Guests on these shows have included Donald Trump, JD Vance, the New York Post’s Miranda Devine, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh, right-wing figures Tucker Carlson and Dave Smith, Trump picks Tom Homan, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Monica Crowley, UFC CEO and Trump ally Dana White, and far-right constitutional sheriffs.

Additionally, 65 right-leaning online shows had followings larger than 1 million, but only 21 left-leaning online shows boast comparable followings.

Across streaming platforms including YouTube, Rumble, Twitch, Kick, and Spotify, the left-leaning online shows had at least 55.9 million total followers and subscribers — a figure which is dwarfed by the right-leaning online shows with at least 255.5 million.

This content is further amplified on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — social media platforms where the programs or hosts post full streams, clips, and show links. Left-leaning online shows had at least 48 million followers across these platforms, while the right-leaning online shows had more than 225 million followers.

The Manosphere’s Election Influence

Joe Rogan is only one amongst many influencers and podcasters who helped to influence Gen Z’s males in their voting habits. The Paul brothers, two key members of the Manosphere, both endorsed Trump to their 56 million followers and helped to fuel the resurgence of toxic masculinity that is plaguing young men.

By tapping into this, influencers and podcasters can manipulate their young viewers into holding extremist and bigoted beliefs. Their extreme popularity can be attributed to the fact that men often feel left behind in modern-day politics. As society progresses and equality is achieved, young men can feel neglected, particularly as traditional roles are abandoned.

Thus, when someone really speaks to young men, through forms of media familiar to them, and tells them who to blame (ie. women, immigrants, and trans persons) it allows them to feel understood and accepted. They are once more the center of the conversation.

As distrust of the center-left traditional media grows, alternative right-wing podcasters and influencers are a safe-haven for those who feel abandoned by the likes of the coastal elites at the New York Times. And with billionaires continuing to fund right-wing content creators to make these alternative media formats, there seems to be no end to the popularity of the right-wing podcast.

Future Strategies

Democrats focus on message discipline, rather than accepting and empowering young voices on the left. Aside from Trevor Noah’s podcast, the left does possess shows like Pod Save America and Today, Explained.

Hasan Piker and Brian Tyler Cohen, two of the most successful voices on the American left, seemingly possess little competition in their respective arenas of Twitch and YouTube. Piker possesses over three million followers on Twitch, where he live-streams for around eight hours per day, seven days a week.

Piker believes he’s able to reach a younger audience, which is mostly filled with men aged 18 to 35, because he shares their general sense of frustration and apathy. He considers himself to be more of a socialist than a progressive and openly criticizes the Democratic Party for their actions and rhetoric.

While some Democratic pundits suggested Piker could be the “Joe Rogan of the left,” he immediately dismissed the mantle. On the Today, Explained podcast, he emphasized what he believes to be the Democratic Party’s key failure: messaging.

Cohen hosts a political podcast titled No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen and posts regularly on his YouTube channel. He interviews political figures, reports on politics, and live-streams events, including debates and election results. Cohen is often critical of mainstream media, believing most Americans consume new media, rather than television news. He has criticized the Democratic Party for what he perceived as an overreliance on mainstream media, arguing that podcasts and YouTube shows reach wider audiences.

The Majority Report with Sam Sedar, a daily, progressive podcast, continues to run strong on YouTube, albeit with a smaller following than Trevor Noah or Brian Tyler Cohen; additionally, most late night talk shows, The Daily Show, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver all possess a left-wing slant.

Kat Abughazaleh is a content creator and political influencer who worked at Media Matters for America and has been published by Mother Jones and The New Republic. She’s quite well known for her political commentary on social media, including TikTok and Instagram.

Less than a fortnight ago, Abughazaleh announced her intention to run for a U.S. House of Representative seat in Illinois’ ninth district. If elected, she would be the youngest woman to ever serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It’s unclear where the media landscape will go from here, but one thing is certain: the left must start investing in younger voices to start influencing younger generations, who are currently sliding right quicker than any other generation.

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