2 November 2024

Behind the Curtain: The big media era is over

Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen

The mainstream media's dominance in narrative- and reality-shaping in presidential elections shattered in 2024.
  • The future of news and information is upon us. Welcome to the shards of glass election — and news era.
Why it matters: How and where Americans get informed has broken into scores of pieces — from young men on Joe Rogan's podcasts, to suburban women following Instagram influencers.

Both campaigns have targeted small, often little-appreciated shards to reach hyper-specific pockets of potential voters. The campaigns are doing this with unorthodox, sometimes lengthy media appearances and precision ad targeting.
  • Former President Trump reached way more potential male voters with his three-hour Rogan conversation (33 million views over the weekend) than he could have with a dozen or more appearances on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC combined. All three cable news networks skew very old in viewership, with median ages ranging from 67 to 70.
  • Vice President Kamala Harris reached more young women on Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast, a show about sex and relationships, than she could on CBS' "60 Minutes" and ABC's "The View" combined. Both shows skew very old, too.
  • Memes, prediction markets and long-form podcast interviews shape the conversation as surely as any front page.

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