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GE2024posters to podcastsAMID THE POST-MORTEM engulfing Democrats in the United States to their defeat in the presidential election, one name has been consistently repeated: Joe Rogan.
The debate has fluctuated between ‘where is the liberal Joe Rogan?’ to ‘Why didn’t Kamala Harris just go on Joe Rogan?’.
There seems to be little debate that the podcast, which is by many measures the most popular in the United States, played a role in Donald Trump’s decisive victory.
Even if it’s not as simple as Trump going on the podcast and Harris not, the argument has been made that Republicans had built up an ecosystem of right-leaning influencers that drove home a strong message.
If the recent US presidential election has in some places been called the ‘influencer election’, there is evidence that Irish politicians have been paying attention.
With the general election campaign just over a week old, we can already get a sense about how the parties are using, or attempting to use, podcasts and social media to court voters.
In the case of podcasts, there have been several high profile examples.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has been a guest on the 2 Johnnies and on Ryan Tubridy’s book podcast, Micheál Martin went on Mairéad Ronan and Jenny Kelly’s podcast this week and Mary Lou McDonald also joined Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning on Free State.
Holly Cairns, who is due to have a baby this month, has appeared on various parenting and pregnancy podcasts including Stretchmarks and The Baby Tribe.
Heck, even criminal-turned-candidate Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch is due to appear on Crime World with Nicola Tallant this weekend.
Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch - The Interview.
— Crime World with Nicola Tallant (@CrimeNicola) November 14, 2024
Part One out Sunday. pic.twitter.com/dcfEGKfSbN
It’s not hard to understand why politicians are increasingly going down the podcast route. Clearly, the listenership is there to reach a big swathe of voters at once, but more crucially it’s also about the nature of the connection people have with their favourite podcasts.
In radio, listeners are at the whim of tight schedules and more rigid formats. Even if the shows are made available afterwards, the rolling nature of radio often gives them a shorter shelf-life.
By contrast, podcast listeners make the choice of when and where to spend time when their chosen hosts.
They perhaps do it at a certain time of the day or week, or when they’re doing something specific. The result is that there’s almost a kind of parasocial relationship that exists between a podcast and its audience.
This is clearly tempting for politicians. In the same way that product placement exists, surely making your pitch in an ostensibly apolitical space will allow people to take it in with less cynical ears?
In addition, there is also the benefit of humanising oneself in a way that is simply not possible on Prime Time. Previously, the way politicians did this was in a lifestyle feature or interview in a magazine. Simply put, that just doesn’t carry the same bang for your buck anymore.
For podcast hosts, there is a risk in allowing politicians into this space.
Some podcasts where politicians appear are clearly news spaces, hosted by journalists, and where the audience would not be put off by hearing talk about Rent Tax Credits or garda numbers.
Others though have built up an audience on the back of being a ‘safe space’ where people can avoid the noise that politics brings. Indeed, when Kamala Harris made her highest profile podcast appearance on Call Her Daddy, host Alex Cooper was forced to defend allowing her on.
How long this trend for politicians going on podcasts continues remains to be seen, but the poisoning of Twitter into X has constrained the space for politicians to engage positively with social media.
Irish politicians have been embracing TikTok during this election but in many cases the videos are glorified election posters, designed to breed familiarity rather than engagement.
With two weeks to go in the campaign, don’t be surprised if your feed starts to resemble an election lamppost either.
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Can I ask this? Simon Harris has on his posters across the country “a new energy”
A new energy for what exactly? It’s the same old FG , they sold the state silver at a knocked down price and they made sure foreign vultures have a say in the Irish Property Market and price first time buyers OUT.
@Tommy: the words ‘Harris’ and ‘energy’ should never be seen together…he looks more like a prematurely-aged depressed undertaker ..
@Finian McG: that didn’t get a funeral in 6 months
Sensational Simon is doing a fantastic job
@Tommy: to be fair , Harris has been doing non stop work and events. Even the experts say. The issue is can he keep it up.
@Paul M Doe: Paul m doe is just one account from this multi account troll . Read any of the Paul m doe (william slevin / fintan pox / john doe / john m doe / john p doe /ulysses / exhausted jim / tired jim / john jon / lefty tears / lefty cries and dozens more troll accounts ) and you will see the quality of his comments, he has never added anything constructive or of any merit to any conversation on this platform. He has been banned on many occasions for good reason.
On one hand , it is pitiful to think how someone’s life choices have led them to be this desperate for attention , while on the other hand it is easy to see why nobody will interact with him in the real world.
@tom o reilly: 100%. When your only kicks in life are acting the eejit on the journal you should really start to evaluate where it all went wrong. And I don’t even mean that in a mean-spirited way. Something has gone radically wrong.
@Ciaran: Well if he can’t, there’s a tablet he can get for that!
@Ciaran: PR and media events don’t fix long standing real issues facing the country!
Harris did no favour to himself by being interviewed by Ryan Tubridy, who has still not returned the 150,000 he got from Renault via way of the RTE Barter account.
And every sector put to him has gone increasing worse, he didn’t have answers. Blank boxes beside FG/FF/Gr/Lab as they had their chance. Majority believe the country is going in the wrong direction. I’m voting for a SF/Ind led govt.
@Mark R: Who signed off on that Huge White Elephant…The Children’s Hospital. Look who’s
“”Partying “” ..NOW!
Joe Brolly is a woke open borders wally… Vote for your Independent/Nationalist (strict borders/deportations) candidate!
@Finian McG: do the opposite of what Finian says, got it
@John Doe: do whatever you want…Monk in, Mary Lou McBurqa out!
@Finian McG: cover your drinks around Finian ladies. He’s one of them
Someone had the brilliant idea of putting googly eyes on posters around Cork. Vast improvement and very funny.
Posters are unsightly and a thing of the past, electorate know who they are voting for, give the money to charity instead.
@Phillip Smyth: Blanket MSM negativity and distortion in US election insulted the people and they voted as they did in response. The constant anti FF FG pro SF journalism is having a similar effect here.
@thomas molloy: Pro SF journalism? Yeah, good one thomas, rofl!
@thomas molloy: go back to bed skearon, I thought part of the deal of you being left back into fianna fail is you had to stay off the Internet after what happened the last time?
@Michael o connor: troll
Maybe if the hopefuls started knocking on doors rather than preaching behind a microphone. How is thanksgiving listening to the electorate? I wrote to my 3 TDs last month, not one of them has even bothered to acknowledge receipt of my correspondence let alone reply to it. They can expect the same response on my voting paper.
Cos they just copy what the americans do……nothing new
FFG is the cartel of criminals, embezzlers, vulture funds, banksters, and paedos (helping cover up abuses by the Catholic Church). From their continuous theft from publicly funded projects, profiteering from hosting illegal asylum seekers, housing crisis / increased homelessness of Irish people, poor criminal justice & policing, abandonment of scoliosis children patients, abandonment of renters, working class families, and our young adults; etc their list of incompetency is endless. VOTE-FFG-OUT !!!
@Jose mourinho: we don’t talk about Bruno
Enjoyed the Free State podcast with Mary Lou. Was refreshing not to hear the same old boring questions, do you condemn etc. She seems the most empathetic of all the party leaders, someone who actually cares as opposed to the 2 cheeks who have proven over the past decade that they don’t. I will be voting for change. I will be voting to piss off John M Doe, or whatever he’s called today. I will be voting Sinn Féin.
@Anthony Curran: well your up slightly today and I’m sure that will help with the campaign, by the way I don’t drink, ps don’t awaken Bambi.Doe.
@Phillip Smyth: I’m just an ordinary working class man living day to day with a young family and sick and tired of FF and FG governments. It’s time we shook off the shackles and had the balls to try something different.
This is your chance now to voice your opinion, don’t waste it on ministers who are already there and destroying this country.We see it everywhere.Oh mother Ireland of island forgive us for what we are allowing to happen to our culture our children and the future of this country, respected the world over for our our scholars and patriots, and now awash roaming nations, with no possibility of future settlement and the tracts they bring. We are Irish and proud protect our generations.
@Phillip Smyth: Bit early to be on the sauce Phillip! Each to their own though.
@Phillip Smyth: Sweet Jesus.thats up there with Dev’s maidens at the crossroads speech. Talk about living in a fantasy.
@Louis Jacob: we are at a crossroads, you must see that, or is it fantasy as you say.
If there were more candidates like Clare Daly, I’d bother to vote. Can’t see much of any integrity with the rest…
Total sausage party here, innit!?
INever watched a Podcast especially with politicians. Not for me.
Dirt on a pole everywhere at every junction, at roundabouts , pointing to possible accidents with visible limited vision, should be a crime.
@Phillip Smyth: Let’s put googly eyes on all the posters.. it’ll be fun.
Swapped posters for podcasts? When did that happen and why are there posters onneverything they can be fastened to?
If it works for them it will be a great thing.
If it doesn’t, podcasts will be characterized as misinformation, threats to democracy and will be shut down by this new Government Censorship Bureau.
Definitely no reduction in posters out my way. If anything it’s increased.
There should be a rule to not allow recently elected councillors from being elected to the Dail, they are not even in the council 6 months and are out canvassing again, which means all those that are successful need to be backfilled again, makes a mockery of the system
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