I wholeheartedly agree. It would be interesting to ponder what would have happened if x was still twitter; eliminating users and comments for “our own good”. The rize of the podcast in a non-partisan non edited format, is truly a breath of fresh air.
To paraphrase, he notes that Donald Trump or Kamala Harris could’ve gone on traditional (time-constrained, often advesarial) media every day for a week, and only have captured a fraction of the audience they could achieve in a single free-wheeling open-ended appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” or “Call Her Daddy”. Plus, it’s the prized 25-34 demographic, not 70-year-old retirees watching Fox News or MSNBC.
He also says that the entire “mainstream media” model in recent years has been to run losses for three years, and then in year four receive ridiculous amounts of ad revenues from PACs desperately trying to reach a handful of elderly viewers/listeners/readers; he predicts that that’s all finished now, as it’s going to be all-in on podcasts/YouTube/online etc. from now on.
I read his piece and largely agree with it. He of course was hoping for a Harris victory but successfully diagnoses the problem she had in her campaign.
The last piece of the puzzle will be if RFK Jr bans pharma ads on TV.
If they lose that cash cow, legacy media will officially go bankrupt
It’s pretty clear that the “mainstream media” though I shudder to use this term, is dead.
My entire family, who get their news from “mainstream” sources, believed that Harris would win. I told them they were wrong. Here we are.
Just before the election, I rejoined #X. It’s a very different place than Twitter…that’s for sure.
A lot of this, I imagine, is driven by self-selection. Look at the discussions on Mastodon/Threads, it’s as if society occupies the same physical space two different cognitive realities.
That said, I wonder what the effect of the “blue check” is having on this “signal vs noise” discussion. As a measure of how committed someone is to making their voice heard, perhaps the algorithmic advantage conferred by “verification” is teasing out the signal?
I think the blue check certainly denotes someone who is willing to have skin in the game (by paying a small fee) but I think the problem is more systemic
X appears to be a place where all views can be expressed. So you can find the truth if you’re looking for it.
The legacy media and Threads appear to be echo chambers and mouth pieces. At least that’s what the data tells us based on the election results.
I wholeheartedly agree. It would be interesting to ponder what would have happened if x was still twitter; eliminating users and comments for “our own good”. The rize of the podcast in a non-partisan non edited format, is truly a breath of fresh air.
It’s clear it would just be another arm of the centralized media, given everything we know about the Twitter files. Thanks for reading!
Professor Scott Galloway has been making some trenchent, eye-opening observations on how podcasts are trouncing traditional “appointment TV https://www.profgalloway.com/the-podcast-election/ and https://open.spotify.com/episode/7kMWdfTKIm8PIDFBGy39QL .
To paraphrase, he notes that Donald Trump or Kamala Harris could’ve gone on traditional (time-constrained, often advesarial) media every day for a week, and only have captured a fraction of the audience they could achieve in a single free-wheeling open-ended appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” or “Call Her Daddy”. Plus, it’s the prized 25-34 demographic, not 70-year-old retirees watching Fox News or MSNBC.
He also says that the entire “mainstream media” model in recent years has been to run losses for three years, and then in year four receive ridiculous amounts of ad revenues from PACs desperately trying to reach a handful of elderly viewers/listeners/readers; he predicts that that’s all finished now, as it’s going to be all-in on podcasts/YouTube/online etc. from now on.
I read his piece and largely agree with it. He of course was hoping for a Harris victory but successfully diagnoses the problem she had in her campaign.
The last piece of the puzzle will be if RFK Jr bans pharma ads on TV.
If they lose that cash cow, legacy media will officially go bankrupt
He might just ban those disclaimers read at lightning speed at the end of the ads ;-) https://youtu.be/wGYDWO5Fhtg
Great piece Matthew
It’s pretty clear that the “mainstream media” though I shudder to use this term, is dead.
My entire family, who get their news from “mainstream” sources, believed that Harris would win. I told them they were wrong. Here we are.
Just before the election, I rejoined #X. It’s a very different place than Twitter…that’s for sure.
A lot of this, I imagine, is driven by self-selection. Look at the discussions on Mastodon/Threads, it’s as if society occupies the same physical space two different cognitive realities.
That said, I wonder what the effect of the “blue check” is having on this “signal vs noise” discussion. As a measure of how committed someone is to making their voice heard, perhaps the algorithmic advantage conferred by “verification” is teasing out the signal?
I think the blue check certainly denotes someone who is willing to have skin in the game (by paying a small fee) but I think the problem is more systemic
X appears to be a place where all views can be expressed. So you can find the truth if you’re looking for it.
The legacy media and Threads appear to be echo chambers and mouth pieces. At least that’s what the data tells us based on the election results.
Thanks as always for reading