Fringe News Networks: Dynamics of US News Viewership following the 2020 Presidential Election

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method for analyzing social media data to understand the dynamics of US political news networks and their viewers, focusing on the period after the 2020 election and before the Capitol attack.

Contribution

It presents a novel methodology for analyzing large social media datasets and offers insights into the changing viewership of fringe news channels during a critical political period.

Findings

Shift in viewership of fringe news networks post-election

Increased engagement with political social media channels

Insights into polarization dynamics during volatile period

Abstract

The growing political polarization of the American electorate over the last several decades has been widely studied and documented. During the administration of President Donald Trump, charges of "fake news" made social and news media not only the means but, to an unprecedented extent, the topic of political communication. Using data from before the November 3rd, 2020 US Presidential election, recent work has demonstrated the viability of using YouTube's social media ecosystem to obtain insights into the extent of US political polarization as well as the relationship between this polarization and the nature of the content and commentary provided by different US news networks. With that work as background, this paper looks at the sharp transformation of the relationship between news consumers and here-to-fore "fringe" news media channels in the 64 days between the US presidential election and the violence that took place at US Capitol on January 6th. This paper makes two distinct types of contributions. The first is to introduce a novel methodology to analyze large social media data to study the dynamics of social political news networks and their viewers. The second is to provide insights into what actually happened regarding US political social media channels and their viewerships during this volatile 64 day period.