On Friday, former president Donald Trump sat down for what could possibly be one of the crucial consequential interviews of this US election cycle: not with the New York Instances or the Washington Submit, however with Joe Rogan, host of the world’s prime podcast.
Locked in a too-close-to-call race for the White Home, each Trump and Democratic rival Kamala Harris have largely eschewed conventional information media to chase new audiences — an indication, consultants say, of a shifting US media panorama.
Podcasts, as soon as dominated by true crime and life-style exhibits, now supply candidates a extremely efficient strategy to goal in any other case hard-to-reach audiences, on usually pleasant phrases and with hosts who’ve big affect on their listeners’ views.
With a rising viewers of hundreds of thousands — a lot of them younger and probably first-time voters — the medium’s enchantment is obvious.
Rogan’s podcast has a staggering 17.5 million subscribers on YouTube alone, and 14 million on Spotify. The common age of his listeners is simply 24, in keeping with Media Screens.
“The US media ecosystem is ever-changing, and so the campaigns should change too,” mentioned Megan Duncan, an affiliate professor at Virginia Tech.
“In a marketing campaign this shut, the place voters are so conversant in the nominees, it is sensible to achieve out to low-propensity and new voters.”
– Podcast blitz –
Within the final decade, print and broadcast information media have seen a gradual decline whereas the attain of podcasts grew exponentially, together with amongst listeners utilizing them as information sources, Pew knowledge exhibits.
A couple of third of US adults beneath 30 say they hearken to podcasts no less than just a few instances every week, Pew discovered.
Harris and Trump’s decisions on the path have mirrored this shift.
Working a truncated marketing campaign since taking on the Democratic ticket in July, Harris has gone on no less than six podcasts, with extra appearances slated.
Trump has performed no less than 16, chatting with hosts starting from sports activities stars to YouTube pranksters — most with overwhelmingly male audiences.
So, what do the candidates stand to realize?
– ‘Pure match’ –
For one, consultants say, the longer-form chats on podcasts are carried out in a extra casual environment than the adversarial format of interviews with skilled journalists.
“Podcasts are a pure match for Trump,” mentioned Lea Redfern, a media and communications lecturer on the College of Sydney.
“These one-on-one conversations really feel extra like discussions than conventional, interrogative interviews, and Trump seems to be very comfy.”
This format permits listeners to really feel like they’re “‘attending to know’ the candidate,” Redfern added, with dialogue usually much less targeted on speaking factors than different media.
In a current look on comic Theo Von’s fashionable “This Previous Weekend” podcast, for instance, Trump spoke at size about how his brother’s struggles with alcoholism formed him, and expressed empathy for Von’s personal battle with dependancy.
It was a far cry from his usually hyper-aggressive rhetoric on the marketing campaign path.
On the vastly fashionable “Name Her Daddy” podcast, Harris spoke in casual tones about her upbringing and the challenges she has confronted as a lady in public service.
– ‘Parasocial relationships’ –
One other draw is the outsized affect that fashionable podcast hosts can have on their audiences.
“Podcast audiences are loyal audiences,” mentioned Redfern. “The reference to a podcast host is made through headphones, instantly into the listeners’ ears. This may create what looks like an intimate relationship.”
The familiarity of listening to hosts speak overtly about their lives a number of instances every week may create “a kind of parasocial relationship” for audiences, mentioned Duncan.
That may give them vital energy to form listeners’ views.
“If an individual is a loyal listener to a podcast centered on a persona, being a part of that viewers may morph from one thing they do to somebody they’re,” mentioned Duncan.
“As soon as that transformation occurs, it can take one thing monumental to get the listener to reject the data they obtained from the podcast.”
In an election that could possibly be determined by the thinnest of margins, Trump and Harris can be hoping that swaying the fitting area of interest viewers could make all of the distinction.
