How podcasters like Joe Rogan and Logan Paul turned young men, a once apolitical demographic, into a massively powerful voting bloc,
Dudes thinking big thoughts: Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson and the lure of the rabbit hole
After B-list careers in their primary professions, these men have found their callings in the earbuds of the young.
Men, algorithms and how YouTube shapes media consumption
ISD's new research project explores the topics and content YouTube’s algorithm recommends to young male users.
Who are the rightwing influencers filling Trump’s head with visions of antifa?
Meet the content creators whose videos from Portland and Chicago shape the president’s distorted view of reality
The Rise of the Right-Wing Media Machine
This conservative media machine now rivals—and may well surpass—the power and the influence of the old-line press. It holds sway over much of the national agenda, deciding which ideas and...
How One Nation bypassed media and conquered Facebook in its political rise
As an editor based in Griffith, I’m familiar with the rituals of modern campaigning: press releases, media calls and candidates eager for coverage. One Nation’s Farrer strategy broke that pattern entirely.
‘I never want to hear again that the Democratic Party has a problem with young men’
Democrats stormed back with young men in off-year elections. But the biggest test will come next year.
New study shows just how Facebook's algorithm shapes conservative and liberal bubbles
Research conducted at the height of the 2020 election reveals new details about how Facebook's algorithms handle political content. But it suggests there are no easy fixes to political polarization.
Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson is a veteran television personality who emerged in 2016 as one of the most influential figures of the authoritarian, anti-democracy, right-wing movement that rose to prominence around the political career of former President Donald J. Trump. Carlson’s propaganda, which obsessively portrays white men as being victims of a corrupt, feminist, multicultural system, often mirrors the talking points found in fringe internet spaces where extremists congregate. He injects these talking points into his commentary on current events, giving extremists both an audience and a TV-ready polish that would be otherwise difficult to obtain. Carlson is undoubtedly the most listened-to pundit the anti-immigrant movement in America has ever seen and is regarded as a heroic figure to white supremacists and other admirers of fascism. Outside of Trump himself, arguably no single figure has proven to be more influential in radicalizing the right in the 21st century.
Once a Trump critic, Mark Zuckerberg pivots toward the president
President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, the leader of the world's largest social network, have butted heads in the past. Now Zuckerberg is reshaping Meta for the Trump era.
How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?
We investigated the effects of Facebook’s and Instagram’s feed algorithms during the 2020 US election. We assigned a sample of consenting users to reverse-chronologically-ordered feeds instead of the default algorithms. Moving users out of algorithmic feeds substantially decreased the time they spent on the platforms and their activity. The chronological feed also affected exposure to content: The amount of political and untrustworthy content they saw increased on both platforms, the amount of content classified as uncivil or containing slur words they saw decreased on Facebook, and the amount of content from moderate friends and sources with ideologically mixed audiences they saw increased on Facebook. Despite these substantial changes in users’ on-platform experience, the chronological feed did not significantly alter levels of issue polarization, affective polarization, political knowledge, or other key attitudes during the 3-month study period.
Women portrayed as younger than men online, and AI amplifies the bias - Haas News | UC Berkeley Haas
In a sweeping study published today in Nature, researchers at UC Berkeley Haas, Stanford, and Oxford/Autonomy University documented extensive age and gender distortion across online media—and found that common algorithms are amplifying the bias.
Internet erupts as MAGA influencers exposed for being based in other countries
A large number of MAGA social media influencers were exposed over the weekend as being being based in other countries.Podcaster Matt Binder posted screenshots showing that Charlie’s Voice Rising, a popular Charlie Kirk fan account, is based in Eastern Europe (non-EU).One popular influencer wrote "wa...
The Kids Are (Mostly) Alright: New Pew Study Deflates The Social Media Panic
A couple weeks back, Jonathan Haidt published another entry in his ongoing campaign to convince the world that social media is inherently ruining kids’ lives. This one was a victory lap title…
the collapse of online political education is upon us
the greatest minds of our generation are wasting time making video essays about sydney sweeneys jeans, liberal influencers are taking dark money, Philosophy YouTube is crumbling & im really stressed
The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish
This obsession is with “young men turning to the right” is everything that is wrong with the discussion about the far right. It is not just an inadequate read of what is happening, and a bias towards the male norm, but it also normalizes the far right and obscures support for inclusive politics. 🧵
