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The flip side to these rankings is that even at their peak hours, just over 1 percent of Americans (1.09%) are watching Fox News. A quarter of that or less for off-peak hours. Other cable news stations/ programs substantially less still. Two things follow. https://twitter.com/RoadMN/status/1292918328395169796
First, narratives attributing crazy influence to @FoxNews for brainwashing people, tipping elections, etc. is mostly hyperbolic and empirically dubious.
Fox has significantly more influence than other news channels, but individually or collectively, none are that substantial.
Fox has significantly more influence than other news channels, but individually or collectively, none are that substantial.
Second, the entire cable news melodrama between Fox, MSNBC, CNN, etc. is basically a tempest in a teacup. Even taking them collectively for given programming hours, the overwhelming majority of Americans aren't tuning in, let alone with regularity.
This is hard for elite types to understand, because so many let politics dominate an insane amount of their time and attention, to define relationships, conversations they have with people, etc. They spend an unhealthy amount of time consuming political news and opinion.
Most don't find joy and meaning in consuming, amplifying, arguing about this content the way elites do. Most have other priorities to attend to, and other things that provide them far more fulfillment in their lives than, for instance, obsessing over the latest Trump bulls****.
And for the reference, it's not 'privilege' that allows people to check out of this garbage. The opposite is the case: it is the people with the most privilege, those who are already the 'winners' in the system, who go elbow deep into this nonsense -- not the other way around.
'Political hobbyism' tends to be a vice of the elite: https://musaalgharbi.com/2019/08/27/unearned-smugness-partisan-diploma-divide/
And far from regular people being readily manipulated by elites, the people most susceptible to attempts to manipulate people through these channels seem to be elites themselves.
And far from regular people being readily manipulated by elites, the people most susceptible to attempts to manipulate people through these channels seem to be elites themselves.
That is, elites are both the primary producers and consumers of all this content -- simultaneously the dealers, the addicts, and the people calling for others to 'get clean.'
For the sake of reflexivity, I'll add, when talking about 'elites,' I recognize this is a group I'm part of... as is basically anyone reading or sharing these tweets: https://musaalgharbi.com/2020/06/08/reflexivity-important-research-activism/
I'm also often elbow-deep. But I'm new here. So while I can still notice the huge gap between how people in my current circles process reality and ascribe meaning to their lives v. how others seem to -- I want to encourage peers to step back and take perspective.
