TV was for Kennedy, social media was for Modi, now podcast has become a gamechanger for Trump! Changing way of publicity

Author: Atanu Biswas
‘Podcast Election’. The world has seen its first ‘podcast election’. 8 years ago Trump won his/her first presidential election with the help of Twitter, and this time podcasts have proved to be a game-changer. Podcast hosts like Joe Rogan and Andrew Schultz and their podcasts made a lot of headlines. ‘Podcasts are changing presidential elections.’ Brady Brickner-Wood had written this in an article in The New Yorker in October itself. he/she told in the article, ‘While Kamala Harris is wooing women voters on ‘Call Her Daddy’, Donald Trump is doubling his/her appeal to the youth online.’

In fact, Trump has appeared on three of the top five Spotify podcasts in terms of listeners: ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, ‘The Shawn Ryan Show’, and ‘This Past Weekend with Theo Vaughn’. his/her conversation with Rogan alone received over 46 million views on YouTube.

As for Harris, among other appearances, she talked about abortion laws in an interview with Alex Cooper, host of ‘Call Her Daddy,’ the fifth most popular podcast on Spotify. However, she did not appear on the stage of The Joe Rogan Experience.

The world’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, endorsed Trump just before the election and used a series of in-depth interviews to spread his/her message to a largely male audience. Elon Musk has insisted that Trump’s casual conversation on Joe Rogan and other shows made a ‘big difference’ in the election. However, how much?

Did the podcast decide this election? Not really, but they played a role. Their exact impact may never be known because our podcasting habits are largely hidden and private, unlike our activities on social networks like Facebook and X. And this also contributes to their effectiveness.

Why are podcasts becoming increasingly popular, especially in the post-pandemic world? Maybe this is a break from loneliness. Also, the unfiltered conversational style is believed to work well as an alternative to face-to-face meetings. In fact, since 2016, the number of podcast listeners has more than doubled.

According to this year’s ‘Infinite Dial’ study from Edison Research, 98 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly, while 135 million do so monthly. For example, Rogan has 14.5 million followers on Spotify, and millions more watch excerpts of the podcast on YouTube and Instagram. And, importantly, audiences trust the hosts of those programs.

After this time’s ‘podcast elections’, this medium is likely to be used more in the coming elections. In fact, the podcast campaign is a reflection of audience fragmentation in the Internet age, which has diminished the influence of traditional media.

In addition to face-to-face campaigning, an election, in general, is also influenced by society’s technological advances, which allow politicians to connect with voters. Joseph Neapolitan, who worked on the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and led the rise of Hubert Humphrey in 1968, used a well-worn analogy in his/her 1972 book The Election Game and How to Win It. Had done.

he/she claimed that election campaigns are ‘games’, subject to rules, and require the creation and execution of successful gameplans. Neapolitan highlighted how they took advantage of political polling and electronic campaigning to promote their campaigns.

Kennedy benefited from TV in the 1960s; In America’s first televised presidential debate, he/she outperformed Republican Richard Nixon.

Obama’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries was largely attributed by political analysts to big data analytics. Every potential voter and hundreds of pieces of personal data were entered into the Obama campaign’s database. Through emails, snail mail, personal meetings, and television advertisements soliciting donations and votes, the campaign was able to target individuals at the micro level.

What is the situation in India? India’s electoral strategy has evolved in almost every election over the last 30 years, a result of the integration and use of emerging technologies.

A continuing journey of technology-driven social development Widespread use of phone calls to connect with voters in the 1990s, the first ‘mass mobile phone’ election for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2007; India’s first ‘Social Media Election’ or ‘Facebook Election’ for the 2014 Lok Sabha election and ‘WhatsApp Election’ for the 17th Lok Sabha in 2019.

By targeting voters at the micro level, recent political campaigns have shown how technology can be used to influence election outcomes. It should not be forgotten that according to Neapolitan, the candidates who succeed are those whose conduct and ways of raising issues allow ‘immediate engagement’ with voters.

With over 5.76 crore listeners, India is already the third largest podcast market in the world. As such, podcasts should be an integral part of Indian elections today. In fact, political parties are already taking advantage of it to engage voters for the Maharashtra elections. There BJP started its series ‘Nakki Kay Chalalaya?’ (What’s Really Happening?), Shiv Sena (UBT) is also relying on podcasts, a strategy that worked well for it during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

So, what’s next in terms of using technology to connect with voters? Many commented that elections held around the world in 2024 and beyond will be ‘AI elections’. However, AI is only a technological tool but deepfakes, AI-powered bots and AI-powered real-time data analysis also confirm this.

The bottom line is that any technology, even AI, needs a suitable medium or platform to reach people. Of an innovative platform. Only then will she be able to influence the voters.

(The author is Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.)