Here’s How Americans Are Consuming Political Media In 2024 Election Season
With the 2024 election season underway, we at Podcastle have taken a deep dive into how Americans are consuming political media, to uncover how they’re shaping their decisions, and how they’re feeling during voting season.
Key findings:
– NPR News Now is the most popular political podcast in the US for 2024 election season
– Almost three in 10 Americans are engaging with political news and podcasts less than last election
– Gen Z tied with top political podcast - NPR News Now and The Daily
– A quarter of Americans share their political views on social media
– Over ¼ Gen Zers say they are the most annoying generation when it comes to posting political content on social media
– Americans say the top word they would use to describe the 2024 election is ‘stressed'
183 million people tuned into podcasts in 2023, a nearly 3000% increase in listeners compared to podcasting’s inception in 2004 - and political podcasts have only been on the rise since. Since December 2009, 79,320 political podcast episodes have been produced, 3,795 since the start of 2024.
With 1 in 6 Americans opting to engage with and consume political news via podcasts according to our research, check out the top 10 most popular political podcasts right now below.
These Are The Most Popular Political Podcasts This Election Season
According to our research, the top 10 political podcasts Americans are listening to this election season are:
1) NPR News Now
2) The Daily
3) The Tucker Carlson Podcast
4) The Ben Shapiro Show
5) Rachel Maddow
6) Candace Owens
7) Democracy Now!
8) Pod Save America
9) The Journal
10) The Megyn Kelly Show
The survey data also uncovered the most popular political podcast according to each generation.
*Top answer was a tie
For left-leaning podcast listeners, their favorite show is NPR News Now, which is the same for those with center ideologies. One in three (32%) right-leaning respondents said The Tucker Carlson Podcast is their top pod.
3 in 10 Americans Are Engaging With Political News Less Than The Last Election
The most popular way to consume political news was revealed as via news websites or apps (51%), and despite almost two thirds (57%) of respondents confirming that they’re engaging with political news the same amount as the last election, almost 3 in 10 (28%) have decided to unplug.
It’s not just engaging with political news that Americans are avoiding, a huge 75% aren’t sharing their political views on social media platforms either.
This might make sense when we look at the top five words used to describe how Americans feel about the 2024 election season:
1) Stressed - 22%
2) Pessimistic - 19%
3) Hopeless - 17%
4) Indifferent - 13%
5) Exhausted - 13%
Only 3% said they were feeling ‘excited’ ahead of the 2024 elections and even less (2%) are feeling ‘inspired’.
Taking a look at political ideology groups, respondents identified as right-leaning claimed their top word is ‘optimistic’, while left said ‘stressed’, and center, ‘pessimistic’.
Over ¼ Gen Zers Say They Are The Most Annoying Generation When It Comes To Posting Political Content On Social Media
Engaging with and sharing political news and content isn’t for everyone, but our research revealed that there are certain generations that are coming off as annoying when they do it!
No, no need to blink! All generations, including Baby Boomers themselves, said they’re the most annoying generation when it comes to posting and sharing political content on social media.
Gen Z (26%) and Millennials (28%) did the same self reflection, voting themselves as the second most annoying generation sharing political posts on social media.
Just under a third (28%) of Baby Boomers say they share their political views on social media, followed by Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Despite giving themselves the ‘annoying’ vote, less than a quarter (21%) of Gen Zers said they share political social media posts.
Here’s How You Can Start Your Own Podcast
With stress and pessimism front of mind this election season, and over a quarter of Americans engaging less with political news, you might be looking for some alternative news genres. Here are the current top 10 podcast genres ranked by popularity for you to check out:
Has this research inspired you to start sharing your own thoughts? Whether you’d like to start your own politically-focused podcast or dip into another genre, you can produce it end-to-end with no fuss with Podcastle.
Check out our step by step guide on how to start your own podcast - and there’s no need to worry about fancy equipment. Podcastle's AI Audio Enhancer Magic Dust will transform your low-quality audio recordings into studio-level sound, with impressive noise cancellation to deliver clean, crisp audio.
Methodology
Podcastle conducted a survey of 1,000 US general population respondents to understand how they’re consuming, engaging and sharing political news and media in light of the 2024 election season. A text analysis was used to summarize open text questions and provide a ranked overview of the most common themes or threads.
Questions were multiple choice, with the option to provide qualitative data where needed. Respondents were split by multiple demographics, including age, generation, political ideology, and the state they reside in, to find key statistics.
The data is based on self-reported answers, meaning respondents may have had biases or discrepancies between their own reported ability and their actual abilities. Survey data has certain limitations related to self-reporting.
Fair Use Statement:
Now that you have an overview of how Americans are consuming political media and how they’re feeling ahead of the 2024 election season, feel free to share this data.
We ask that you do so for non-commercial use and provide a link to this original study page, so the researchers are credited correctly.
