How Americans Consume Political Media In Election Season

The 2024 election is upon us, so we at Podcastle have reflected on our original political media consumption study carried out back in March 2024 to bring you fresh insights and uncover the differences in how Americans consume political media.

Not only have we looked at political media consumption habits, but our October survey of over 1000 respondents also provides insight into how Americans have shaped their decisions and how their feelings have changed during voting season.

Key Findings:

1. 3 in 5 Americans are listening to podcasts this election season
2. Americans are consuming nearly 2 hours (111 minutes) of political news a week leading up to the 2024 election
3. 3 in 10 Gen Z say they use TikTok to consume political news
4. Over half of Americans (55%) express their political views on social media, with Twitter being the most popular platform for doing so (24%)
5. About 1 in 6 (16%) of Americans say they would consider moving to another country depending on the election result
6. 3 in 10 Americans say the media has impacted their voting decision for president/vice president

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, 86,085 political podcast episodes have been produced, 14,144 since the start of 2024.

3 in 5 Americans now engage with political news via podcasts, jumping up 15% from our original research. What are they listening to? 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 new research, the top 10 political podcasts Americans are listening to this election season are:

1. The Tucker Carlson Podcast
2. The Daily
3. The Fox News Rundown
4. The Ben Shapiro Show
5. NPR Politics
6. Candace Owens
7. Pod Save America
8. Deadline: White House
9. The Lincoln Project
10. Dan Bongino Show

While not primarily political podcasts, 1 in 8 listeners say they get political information from Joe Rogan, and nearly 1 in 20 from the Call Her Daddy podcast.

See how the top 10 political podcasts have changed from the results below collected in our first study back in March 2024:

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 new survey data also uncovered political podcast listener behavior for information gathering by political affiliation.

Overall, right-leaning Americans were 28% more likely than left-leaning Americans to listen to political podcasts. Right-leaning Americans were also 267% more likely than left-leaning to get political information from Joe Rogan.

Meanwhile, left-leaning Americans were 250% more likely than right-leaning Americans to get political information from Call Her Daddy.

Americans Are Consuming Nearly 2 Hours Of Political News A Week

Our new research data found that on average, Americans are consuming nearly 2 hours (111 minutes) of political news a week leading into the 2024 election.

This is 18 minutes a week more than time spent consuming political news leading into the 2020 election. Here’s how minutes spent consuming political news each week differed by political affiliation:

How are Americans consuming political news with the election on the horizon? Here are the top 10 most popular ways to consume political news:

1. Television news programs (42%)
2. News websites/apps (41%)
3. Twitter/X (26%)
4. Direct convos with family/friends/co-workers (23%)
5. Reddit (16%)
6. Facebook (14%)
7. TikTok (14%)
8. Radio news programs (14%)
9. Instagram (11%)
10. Print newspapers (8%)

These findings have changed since our March study, with the most popular way to consume news then identified as via news websites or apps (51%).

When considering political affiliation and ways to consume political news, left-leaning respondents prefer news websites/apps (50%), whereas both right-leaning (44%) and center respondents (50%) opt for television news programs.

The research revealed that left-leaning Americans are 61% more likely than right-leaning to consume political news via news websites/apps. Left-leaning Americans are also 178% more likely than right-leaning to consume political news from Reddit.

Back in March 2024, a huge 75% of survey respondents said they don’t share their political views on social media platforms. This has now decreased to 45% who say they don’t, according to our October 2024 study.

Find the top platforms Americans are sharing their political views on now ahead of the 2024 election below:

1. Twitter/X (24%)
2. Facebook (21%)
3. Instagram (13%)
4. Reddit (11%)
5. TikTok ( 8%)
6. LinkedIn (4%)

Gen Zers are most likely to share their political views on social media (57%), followed by Millennials (53%), Baby Boomers (37%), and Gen X (36%). Younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials) are more likely to share their political views on Twitter, meanwhile older generations (Baby Boomers and Gen X) use Facebook.

Sharing political views on social media also differed by political affiliation. Nearly half (48%) of left-leaning respondents said they share their political views on social media, followed by 46% of right-leaning respondents and 35% of center respondents.

Top Word To Describe Feelings Toward 2024 Election Change Is ‘Anxious’

Find the top 5 words to describe how Americans are feeling about the 2024 election season In October 2024 below:

1. Anxious – 47%
2. Hopeful – 39%
3. Stressed 33%
4. Optimistic – 28%
5. Exhausted – 25%

Only 3% said they were feeling ‘excited’ back in the March study, this has now increased to 12%. Currently, only 5% of Americans say they feel ‘empowered’ ahead of the 2024 election.

Gen Z was found to be the generation that were most likely to be hopeful (45%), compared to all other generations who’s top feeling was ‘anxious’. Half of Boomers describe their feeling towards the election as ‘anxious’ (50%), followed by 47% of Gen X and Millennials.

Here’s how the top word to describe the feeling ahead of the 2024 election has changed from March to October 2024 by political affiliation below.

Nearly 50% Of 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 certain generations are coming off as annoying when they do it!

Here’s what each generation has to say about the generation they find most annoying when posting and sharing political content on social media, comparing the findings of our March 2024 study to new October 2024 data.

Yes you read that correctly, Baby Boomers (35%) themselves still say they’re the most annoying generation when it comes to posting and sharing political content on social media, Millennials (43%) think the same too.

Gen Zers (48%) have done some self-reflecting since March, switching to call themselves the most annoying generation with Gen X (33%) opting for the same switch.

Gen Z and Baby Boomers are tied as the most annoying generations, with 57% of Gen Zers saying they would share their political views on social media according to our research. However, only 37% of Boomers said they would share their political views on social media.

Millennials were never found to be the most annoying generation, yet over half (53%) said they would share their political views on social media, the second highest result after Gen Z (57%).

1 in 3 (31%) of Americans revealed that the media has influenced their voting decision for the president and vice president. This is followed by 27% who say the media has impacted their voting decisions for ballot initiatives/referendums in relation to local or state policies, 24% for congress, and 21% for local representatives such as mayors and judges.

Taking a look at the impact of the media on voting decisions for the president and vice president by political affiliation, 3 in 10 (30%) left-leaning respondents say it’s impacted their decisions compared to a third (33%) of right-leaning respondents.

Nearly half (49%) of Gen Zers say the media has impacted their voting decision for the president and vice president, the most of any generation. Gen Zers are followed by a third of Millennials (33%) who say the media has influenced their presidential and vice presidential voting decision, followed by Gen X (22%), and Baby Boomers (21%).

1 in 6 Americans Would Consider Moving To Another Country Depending On The Election Result

Our October 2024 research has revealed that around 1 in 6 Americans (16%) say they would consider moving to another country depending on the election result.

Left-leaning respondents are 167% more interested in moving to another country depending on the election results than right-leaning respondents. A quarter of left-leaning respondents (25%) are happy to consider a move versus just 9% of right-leaning respondents.

Here are the top 5 countries Americans would be interested in moving to depending on the election result:

1. Canada (44%)
2. United Kingdom (28%)
3. Italy (10%)
4. Sweden (9%)
5. Australia (8%)

Both left (50%) and right-leaning respondents (30%) agree that the top country they would move to would be Canada depending on the election results. This was followed by the UK for left-leaning respondents (34%) and Switzerland for right-leaning respondents (16%).

Here’s How You Can Start Your Own Podcast

With some anxious and others hopeful this election season and with weekly consumption of political news on the rise, you might be looking for a break with 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

March 2024: 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.

October 2024: Updated survey was collected October 2024 and has 1003 responses.

Gender: Female 53%, Men 45%, non-binary 1%

Generation: Baby boomer 25%, Gen X 26%, Millennials 25%, Gen Z 25%.

Political affiliation: Left/liberal (48%), Right/conservative 40%, Center 12%.

Note: Some totals do not equal 100% due to rounding.

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, 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.