[This has been edited on 11/6/2024 to reflect the election results. This post is now a list of links to articles relating to media leading up to the election, continually updated.]
The Republican sweep was decades in the making, and a win for unbridled capitalism. The markets are elated, for now.
What role did the media play, including Roger Ailes and Fox News? Elon Musk who controls the platform X? The cumulative advantage given through media exposure to a particular individual, party or agenda? The Apprentice ran fifteen seasons from 2004 to 2017, a time period which coincided with the rise of social media in the mid-2000s and the prioritization of algorithmic feeds in the mid-2010s, further amplifying polarization. Republicans also took advantage of podcasts in ways Democrats could not.
Media exposure, including information shared on social media, favors the rich and the powerful regardless of party affiliation. Media platforms are for-profit, and their gatekeeping works in tandem with technological advances which also favor the rich and powerful. By keeping our eyes glued to the spectator sports of the presidential election, were we missing something important?
Selected further reading/listening:
The relationship of the election and the media:
Jon Stewart Looks Back with Sanity and/or Fear (NYT 11/04/2024)
A Master of the Media Evolved Yet Again in 2024 (NYT 11/07/2024)
Joe Rogan and the Fifth Estate: How the Podcaster and a Group of Cable News Exiles Became More Powerful Than Traditional Media (Variety 11/13/2024)
Pro-Harris TikTok felt safe in an algorithmic bubble — until election day (The Verge 11/14/2024)
On Elon Musk:
Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars (NYT 7/28/2023)
Elon Musk could be the biggest winner of a second Trump Term (NBC News, 11/5/2024)
On technology, prosperity and the wealth gap: Power and Progress by Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson (Daron Acemoglu is 2024 Nobel Laureate)
On my reading list: The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behavior Nationalized. “Dan Hopkins, associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania… explores how politics in the U.S. have largely become a spectator sport. That is, politics have become more nationalized—issues are more likely to be argued and adjudicated at the national rather than local level. This stands at odds with the historical intent of our framers, who envisioned that political power would favor states and municipalities.” [1]
[1] French, C. (2022, December 11). Democracy from the Sidelines: How U.S. politics became a spectator sport – behavioral scientist. Behavioral Scientist. https://behavioralscientist.org/democracy-from-the-sidelines-how-u-s-politics-became-a-spectator-sport/