Podcasting in Public Discourse

Are the topics of (journalistic) contents influenced by podcasts? Until now it seems that they do not impact the ongoing debate. Is this really true?

An entry by Sarah Ghulam Haider Mughal and Felix Kleine

Tuesday, July 06, 2021

Even though statistics show that Germany lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to podcast consumption, podcasts are still one of the most consumed and most important forms of entertainment in this country. The number of listeners has been rising steadily for years and the trend seems to continue in the coming years. Especially among listeners up to 25, the medium is very popular. This is hardly surprising when you take a look at the variety offered on the streaming platforms. From interviews with politicians and stars to true crime and fictional storytelling to news and science podcasts, there’s something for everyone, no matter how niche it might be.

It’s even more surprising that the impression quickly arises that this heavily consumed media format is hardly referenced by other media, or at least not very much. That’s why we took a closer look.

One of the best examples would be the most successful podcast in the world, The Joe Rogan Experience. 

Hosted by American comedian Joe Rogan, the podcast first aired in 2009 and is wildly popular among young, mostly White male listeners. The podcast is widely known for hosting controversial guests and heated debates. With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, Rogan reaches nearly four times as many people as prime-time cable hosts. 

In 2020, Spotify struck an exclusive licensing deal worth over $100 million to house Rogan’s podcast on the platform. The Joe Rogan Experience, which hit Spotify in September 2020, went on to become the global audio streaming platform’s most popular show of 2020 in just three months.  Not only Rogan’s podcast is seen as one of the most popular entertainment shows globally, according to The New York Times, Rogan and his podcast emerged as „unlikely political influencer“ in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. Some presidential candidates saw measurable surges in popularity and fundraising after making appearances at the podcast or after being discussed by Rogan. The Joe Rogan Experience‘ election night live stream managed to get over 10 million views. Rogan and his podcast generate significant media debate in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, and even Deutsche Welle due to the host’s controversial remarks, daring guest appearances and debates around social and political issues.

But there are also examples of podcasts in the German-speaking area that have a significant impact on the media world. For this, we have selected one of the most successful and well-known podcasts: NDR’s “Das Coronavirus-Update” with Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten (Head of Virology, Charité Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Sandra Ciesek (Head of the Institute for Medical Virology, University Hospital Frankfurt). The first episode was published on February 26, 2020. At that time, Prof. Dr. Drosten was the only virologist interviewed by one of the two science editors. From September 9, 2020, Prof. Dr. Ciesek joined the podcast, who from then on alternated with Prof. Dr. Drosten. The successes did not stop there. In addition to clicks in the millions, there were also hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube and four German awards. According to the NDR, the podcast reached over 100 million plays combined on all platforms in April 2021. All of these successes were largely due to the two virologists, who informed the public with their well-founded opinions about scientific findings and decisions made by the Federal Ministry of Health. Major German newspapers such as „Focus“, „Berliner Zeitung“, „Tagesspiegel“ and also „RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland“ have quoted the virologists‘ statements and used them as sources.

In the analyzed period from May 9 to June 8, more than 4,800 results were displayed on “Talkwalker” for this podcast. 24.3% of these results came from newspapers. That’s over 1,100 newspaper articles that covered this podcast in one month. Similarly, the NDR podcast also became part of the public discourse on Twitter with over 1,600 tweets (33.8%) in one month. As can be seen from the curves, the response is particularly high on the day after the release of a new episode. These results clearly indicate that podcasts are not only part of the public discourse but also serve as a source for journalists and newspapers.

Podcasts could prove to be influential in shaping opinions and holding serious debates about social, political and scientific issues. However, after taking a closer look, we came to the conclusion that people tend to prefer entertaining podcasts over educational podcasts and mostly consider podcasts as a source of entertainment. Nonetheless, podcasts display a unique vibrancy and diversity of perspectives and have a potential to emerge as a medium where not only well-articulated debate is possible but also celebrated.

Sources:

NDR Ratgeber. (n.d.). Socialblade. Retrieved June 1, 2021, from https://socialblade.com/youtube/c/ndrchecker/monthly

NDR Ratgeber. (n.d.-b). YouTube. Retrieved June 1, 2021, from
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAKB9wGGRccBDrvbbbmgetw

Das Coronavirus-Update – Drosten-Podcast knackt 100 Millionen Abrufe. (2021, April 30). stuttgarter-nachrichten.de. https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.das-coronavirus-update-drosten-podcast-knackt-100-millionen-abrufe.160315c1-d6d6-4221-8c5f-98dc63b0661d.html

talkwalker.com. (n.d.). Die führende Social Media Analytics & Monitoring Plattform. Talkwalker. Retrieved June 1, 2021, from https://www.talkwalker.com/de

Podcasts. (2021). Statista. https://de.statista.com/statistik/studie/id/83409/dokument/podcasts/

Podcasting in selected markets worldwide. (2021). Statista. https://www.statista.com/study/74728/podcasting-worldwide/

Stecula, D. M. M. (2021, May 3). Joe Rogan told his millions of listeners not to take his anti-vaccine advice seriously. Is it too late? Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/03/joe-rogan-told-his-millions-listeners-not-take-his-anti-vaccine-advice-seriously-is-it-too-late/