Conservative podcasters continue to close the gap with their progressive counterparts, according to a new analysis of the medium by the Brookings Institution. It examined a set of 36,603 episodes from 79 podcasts and discovered that conservative podcasters produced more than 2.25 times as many episodes per series as the left-leaning ones did. On average, Brookings says conservative podcasters released 620 episodes per series while the left-leaning ones published 275. Moderate podcasts released 140 episodes during the two-year period.
In terms of episode length, Brookings says those with conservative hosts were also only slightly longer. Conservative shows clock in at 1.2 hours per episode, on average, while liberal shows run 1.1 hours. Moderate shows run the longest at 1.8 hours, on average.
The center-left Brookings Institution released the data as part of its analysis of how it believes podcasts have become a “primary vector” to spread unsubstantiated and false claims. It says nearly seven in ten podcasters it reviewed shared at least one bogus claim, and at least one out of every 20 it reviewed featured an unsubstantiated or false claim. Brookings says that is “likely an undercount of the proliferation of this type of content across political podcasting.”
But the problem may not be as widespread as it seems. Brookings says just ten prominent podcasters were responsible for sharing more than 60% of the false claims. The progressive group says all of the hosts lean conservative politically. “As podcasts continue to grow in popularity, addressing the diffusion of unsubstantiated and false content across the ecosystem will become increasingly important,” it says.
Read the full analysis HERE.
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