Right-Wing YouTube: A Supply and Demand Perspective. (January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Munger, Kevin; Phillips, Joseph
• Is Part Of: International journal of press/politics. Volume 27:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 186
• Page End: 219
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Subjects: YouTube -- radicalization -- conservatism -- political extremism; Press and politics -- Periodicals; Government and the press -- Periodicals; Journalism -- Political aspects -- Periodicals; 070.449324
• DOI: 10.1177/1940161220964767
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1940-1612

Abstract

YouTube is the most used social network in the United States and the only major platform that is more popular among right-leaning users. We propose the "Supply and Demand" framework for analyzing politics on YouTube, with an eye toward understanding dynamics among right-wing video producers and consumers. We discuss a number of novel technological affordances of YouTube as a platform and as a collection of videos, and how each might drive supply of or demand for extreme content. We then provide large-scale longitudinal descriptive information about the supply of and demand for conservative political content on YouTube. We demonstrate that viewership of far-right videos peaked in 2017.