"This is not a cultural war that you can win just by doing fucking podcasts" + Meat Loaf’s wikipedia drama, eating disorder Twitter turns on Trump, DDG on Kai Cenat
"There are simply no progressive content creators with Rogan's cultural impact."
This person used to be named MICHAEL MOORE, and when he did challenge the issues that you discuss above ("When Harris did become the nominee she showed a repeated refusal to engage with any creators challenging her ideology or policies"), THE AUDIENCE ABANDONED HIM. You can't just blame the politicians.
The problem with everything political (and non-political) is the reality that most Americans have no memory past a media cycle. This is a bipartisan issue. Humanity repeatedly fails to learn from it's mistakes. It's why the career activists eventually sell out or give up in their old age.
Re: Michael Moore - maybe kinda but even tho Moore started out pretty far outside of 'Hollywood'/mainstream entertainment, he got scooped up by it pretty quickly. Which gets at a related point mentioned here and elsewhere - the Left Leadership doesn't think it needs something like this because they really do have mainstream entertainment mostly locked up. Harris had Beyonce, Taylor Swift, George Clooney, and almost all of the other most famous people in America actively stumping for her.
The Right has done a good job for a long time of seeking out these alternative-to-the-main-channel roads for a long while - Talk Radio in the 90s, completely co-opting country music in the 00's, social media in the '10s - and this is just the next iteration of it.
I do think the Left will figure this out and I don't think it'll be a 20-years-in-the-making kind of thing - there are plenty of folks out there capable of being a Lefty Rogan and with the Mainstream media business model hollowing out, opportunity is going to open up.
Interesting to note that election '04 was what put blogs on the map. Traffic, chatter, media coverage and revenues all soared into November. We wondered, was all this just a flash in the pan? (This article, originally in Business Week, is a snapshot of the moment: https://www.technewsworld.com/story/blogads-is-there-life-after-nov-2-38588.html )
Spot-on. This is not only the history of online media but also the history of every news and commentary medium developed since the 1990s. Part of it is that there are few viable online media business models that does not rely significantly on massive donations. It is extremely hard to build a progressive or even centrist press online, especially when we're scrapping for subscription dollars and focusing on non-profit status.
Joe Rogan is the same as all the talk radio voices before him: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, etc. They are able to position themselves as "alternative" and develop the view that they are going against the norm when they are extremely savvy at understanding their audiences and creating for mass distribution.
How do we get back to the independent progressive press of the 1970s or alt weeklies of the 1990s? I'd definitely like to see more creator alliances and collaborative efforts as the creator economy moves into its mass media phase. I'd also like to see products and ad networks built for "progressive" brands to advertise when they champion progressive ideals but might be concerned about brand safety. To truly reach large audiences, creators need to make money from both subscribers and advertiser partnerships, and the reality is that most progressive press is not set up to sell ads well. It's also critical to not shun "the algorithms" entirely and build FOR them rather than stubbornly against them. This is our media system now.
Your point about ad partnerships is also spot on. I would argue the ad ecosystem online is actually set up to spend predominantly against more conservative themes as it's all about keeping people scrolling - and right-wing content tends to be the most effective for this as it has its basis in anger and self-centeredness.
We're trying to change the ad paradigm online with new models. There aren't many tackling this problem, but it's a critical one imo.
"There are simply no progressive content creators with Rogan's cultural impact."
This person used to be named MICHAEL MOORE, and when he did challenge the issues that you discuss above ("When Harris did become the nominee she showed a repeated refusal to engage with any creators challenging her ideology or policies"), THE AUDIENCE ABANDONED HIM. You can't just blame the politicians.
The problem with everything political (and non-political) is the reality that most Americans have no memory past a media cycle. This is a bipartisan issue. Humanity repeatedly fails to learn from it's mistakes. It's why the career activists eventually sell out or give up in their old age.
Re: Michael Moore - maybe kinda but even tho Moore started out pretty far outside of 'Hollywood'/mainstream entertainment, he got scooped up by it pretty quickly. Which gets at a related point mentioned here and elsewhere - the Left Leadership doesn't think it needs something like this because they really do have mainstream entertainment mostly locked up. Harris had Beyonce, Taylor Swift, George Clooney, and almost all of the other most famous people in America actively stumping for her.
The Right has done a good job for a long time of seeking out these alternative-to-the-main-channel roads for a long while - Talk Radio in the 90s, completely co-opting country music in the 00's, social media in the '10s - and this is just the next iteration of it.
I do think the Left will figure this out and I don't think it'll be a 20-years-in-the-making kind of thing - there are plenty of folks out there capable of being a Lefty Rogan and with the Mainstream media business model hollowing out, opportunity is going to open up.
Interesting to note that election '04 was what put blogs on the map. Traffic, chatter, media coverage and revenues all soared into November. We wondered, was all this just a flash in the pan? (This article, originally in Business Week, is a snapshot of the moment: https://www.technewsworld.com/story/blogads-is-there-life-after-nov-2-38588.html )
This fills in a big piece of the puzzle ever since I saw Mystal's tweet.
greattt one Taylor 🙏
Spot-on. This is not only the history of online media but also the history of every news and commentary medium developed since the 1990s. Part of it is that there are few viable online media business models that does not rely significantly on massive donations. It is extremely hard to build a progressive or even centrist press online, especially when we're scrapping for subscription dollars and focusing on non-profit status.
Joe Rogan is the same as all the talk radio voices before him: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, etc. They are able to position themselves as "alternative" and develop the view that they are going against the norm when they are extremely savvy at understanding their audiences and creating for mass distribution.
How do we get back to the independent progressive press of the 1970s or alt weeklies of the 1990s? I'd definitely like to see more creator alliances and collaborative efforts as the creator economy moves into its mass media phase. I'd also like to see products and ad networks built for "progressive" brands to advertise when they champion progressive ideals but might be concerned about brand safety. To truly reach large audiences, creators need to make money from both subscribers and advertiser partnerships, and the reality is that most progressive press is not set up to sell ads well. It's also critical to not shun "the algorithms" entirely and build FOR them rather than stubbornly against them. This is our media system now.
Your point about ad partnerships is also spot on. I would argue the ad ecosystem online is actually set up to spend predominantly against more conservative themes as it's all about keeping people scrolling - and right-wing content tends to be the most effective for this as it has its basis in anger and self-centeredness.
We're trying to change the ad paradigm online with new models. There aren't many tackling this problem, but it's a critical one imo.