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One of the biggest losers in last week’s US elections, aside from the Democratic Party, was the traditional news media, or what is called the mainstream media, which includes newspapers, magazines and cable news networks. The mainstream media, sometimes dubbed corporate media, has been losing its audience for years. Still, the shocking outcome of last week’s elections revealed how wrong pollsters, talk show analysts and pundits were in reading the minds of the American electorate across the board. Almost all polls conducted by liberal and conservative news organizations alike had predicted that the race between the two presidential candidates was so close that it was impossible to predict a winner.

They were all proven wrong. Just as the Democratic Party needs to investigate the reasons for its resounding loss, the mainstream media will have to reflect deeply and try to cope with the reality that younger audiences are increasingly migrating to the ever-expanding world of digital media, with all its pros and cons. This is another indicator that, just as the political landscape in America is changing, so is the media terrain. The corporate media cannot claim to have its finger on the pulse of the nation anymore.

The billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk, a staunch Donald Trump supporter, claimed that the former president’s three-hour interview with the No. 1 US podcaster, Joe Rogan, significantly contributed to his historic triumph at the polls. Rogan’s show, the most listened to podcast in the US, with 14.5 million Spotify followers and 17.9 million YouTube subscribers, gained more than 400,000 new followers following the interview.

In fact, about 39 percent of adult Americans listen to podcasts for at least one hour per week. In ��������Ƶ, the figure is even higher, at 59 percent.

The reality is that younger audiences are migrating to the ever-expanding world of digital media, with all its pros and cons

Osama Al-Sharif

The decline in the mainstream media’s appeal and clout, which has been taking place for some time, is due to several factors, including the fragmentation of audiences, the availability of numerous digital news options that are primarily free and accessible anywhere, anytime, and the lack of trust in cable news networks and national newspapers, especially among younger generations. Another factor is that people can express themselves freely and with minimum constraints on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and X.

The once-dominant cable news networks have been losing viewers for years. The liberal MSNBC had 5.5 million viewers on election night, down from 7.3 million in 2020. The conservative Fox News also saw a drop, from 13.7 million to 9.8 million. The decline in cable news viewership is tied to the increasing availability of news online and the rise of streaming services, in addition to the age gap between traditional cable news viewers and the younger generations, which have found outlets that are new and more interactive, as well as cheaper.

The decline in sales of US newspapers since the 1980s has become more acute recently. In 2022, total daily newspaper circulation (print and digital) was 20.9 million, down 8 percent from the previous year. The average number of newspapers ceasing publication also increased to 2.5 per week in 2023, up from two in 2022. Newspaper publishing revenue has dropped at an annual rate of 3.7 percent over the past five years.

According to Forbes magazine, about 6,000 newspapers remain in the US, most of them (4,790) being weeklies. In 2005, there were 8,891 newspapers. In the early 20th century, there were about 24,000 newspapers in the country.

This phenomenon is also seen in Europe and other parts of the world. The internet has changed the rules of mass communication at an alarming rate. In contrast, the X platform has about 500 million monthly active users worldwide, while Facebook has a staggering 3 billion monthly users and TikTok has 1.6 billion. No mainstream media platform can come close regarding the number of users/subscribers/viewers. Substack now boasts 35 million readers, while YouTube has 122 million users daily.

Other forms of social media, such as blogs, vlogs and podcasts, have also lured people of various backgrounds away from traditional media outlets. Musk called the new platforms the driving force behind “the democratization of the media.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times has about 300,000 print subscribers and more than 8.8 million digital subscribers. The paper was a leader in introducing a paywall while diversifying its digital content and delivery.

But it boils down to credibility and trust for the younger generation. The corporate media is viewed as partisan and biased, often bowing to party lines and echoing the policy lines of the party it is aligned with. The credibility factor has become even more relevant during Israel’s war on Gaza, with the mainstream media generally sticking to the official government line and, more importantly, ignoring the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and Israel’s brutal targeting of civilians.

Amateur videos emerging from Gaza and posted on social media platforms such as X and TikTok have exposed the mainstream media for its bias and double standards. Citizen journalism, using social media platforms, has become an alternative source of information and facts regarding the carnage in Gaza — often debunking the mainstream media’s coverage — resulting in massive antiwar protests across the US and Europe.

The corporate media is viewed as partisan and biased, often echoing the policy lines of the party it is aligned with

Osama Al-Sharif

People continue to be news consumers, but the digital disruption has rattled the mainstream media’s status quo. Ironically, it was Trump who first used the term “fake news” in reference to the corporate media. As it turned out, that term gained traction, especially with young people, over such hot issues as Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, immigration and others, which galvanized Trump’s election agenda.

However, the alternative media also has its risks. He who pays the piper calls the tune; in this case, he who owns the medium also sets the agenda. In Musk’s case, the platform is believed to use algorithms to hide or expose certain content. In the case of Facebook, there are allegations that much of the pro-Palestine content is hidden or exposes users to bans for “breaching community rules.”

New media is not immune from running fake news. Israel has been accused of using specialized cyber units to run thousands of so-called bots to spread pro-Israel and anti-Palestine content. Russia allegedly used the same methods to influence the 2016 US elections. One downside of digital media is that social media algorithms often prioritize controversial content over journalistic quality.

Facebook and Google are facing antitrust cases for being too big and, in effect, controlling what users can see or post. Ironically, some of the challenges facing the new media are similar to the ones the old media conglomerates once faced.

The US has always been ahead of the rest of the world in embracing new and innovative platforms, while ditching traditional ones. What does it say about the future of the mainstream media in the US today and worldwide? More importantly, what does this say about the future of journalism as we know it?

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010