Yet another social media study, this time from Penn State University, characterizes a group of YouTube creators as a threat.
The study, “A Supply and Demand Framework for YouTube Politics,” offers a new way to look at the “alternative media” found on YouTube. By analyzing the “Alternative Influence Network” set out in a previous study by Data and Society’s Rebecca Lewis, the study came to a radical new conclusion: “Fringe political content creators” such as Dr. Jordan Peterson, podcast host Joe Rogan, Rubin Report host Dave Rubin, comedian Steven Crowder, Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, PragerU founder Dennis Prager, are creating content that offer “validation” to audiences that sympathize with “white nationalist” media.
“The fringe ideologies available on Youtube offer validation to this audience’s frustration and disaffection, bundled with a seemingly coherent worldview that explains everything about contemporary politics,” write Kevin Munger and Joseph Phillips. Content creators in this network pride themselves on “authentic interactions,” which “act[] as a subversive vector for their political agenda.”
YouTube's algorithm was not to blame for the “infection” of people who become “hardened opponents of liberal democratic values and mainstream knowledge production institutions,” a concept touted in a handful of previous YouTube studies. The audience that preferred “white nationalist video media” existed already.
This study is based on the idea that “YouTube is a media company,” not a social media platform. “[L]one, fringe political commentator[s],” states the study, find YouTube an easy place to break through without having to climb the ladder of power or legitimacy.
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The study split the Alternative Influence Network (AIN) into five parts. The first part, labelled “Liberals,” included Joe Rogan, host of the Joe Rogan Experience, and Steven Bonnell II (“Destiny”). The second part was labelled “Skeptic.” These included Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), Jordan Peterson, and Dave Rubin. The third part, termed “Conservatives,” included Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and Dennis Prager.
The final two groups were the Alt-Lite and the Alt-Right. The Alt-Lite use “racist and otherwise offensive humor” and enjoy “antagonizing and upsetting (‘triggering’) liberals and leftists.” The Alt-Right include people like Richard Spencer and people actually advocating for “an all-white ethnostate.”
For all of these parts of the AIN, the study had a disclaimer: “These ideological distinctions have largely been ignored by a mainstream discourse that (rightly) sees many of these views as abhorrent. Our goal in describing these ideologies and individuals is not to legitimize any of them.”
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