How the Media Environment Helps Trump and Hurts Biden

The media has changed dramatically since the last time these two men faced off

The biggest divide in politics is not between Left and Right; it’s between political junkies and everyone else. There is a massive chasm between those who actively seek out political news and the vast majority of the country. The gap has been exacerbated by tectonic shifts in the media environment. I summarized the changes that led to this “News Gap” in a recent post:

It has never been more difficult for voters to follow the news or for politicians to get attention. The traditional political media is at its nadir in influence, reach, and credibility. Audiences are declining and becoming more ideologically homogeneous. All but the most engaged voters have tuned out political news altogether.

Social media used to be a major conduit for news — no more. Elon Musk rendered Twitter utterly unusable. Facebook, once the most dominant media platform in the world, moved away from news and politics. TikTok emerged as a major news source for younger voters, but the information on that platform is often present without context; and credibility can be impossible to divine.

Readers (and the writer) of this newsletter have barely noticed the changesy. We watch cable news, we download podcasts, subscribe to newsletters, and (some of us) still use Twitter to track current events. We are junkies. We seek out political news at every opportunity. But for the vast majority of Americans, who do not actively engage with politics and the news, these changes significantly altered their media diets and what they know about politics and politicians.

Recognizing how the media ecosystem has shifted is an essential first step to understanding this election and developing effective communication strategies. There were three polls released in the last week that demonstrate how these changes are shaping the race. The polls also help answer the fundamental political question of our time: why is this race so close despite Donald Trump trying to violently overthrow the country and facing upwards of 90 felonies?