On the heels of multiple media-focused controversies — the #OccupyCNN protest of a “Bernie Blackout”, studies showing consistently negative coverage for Hillary Clinton, and constant liberal bias claims by GOP candidates — Demographics Pro analyzed media consumption habits of followers for each presidential candidate.
[94] #OccupyCNN Surges, #Bernie Predicted The Panama Papers, & School Se… https://t.co/CdS7JknqXI via @YouTube
— Top Secret Source (@mogem2) April 19, 2016
The divisions are stark, with GOP and Democratic supporters consuming news, opinion, and culture from seemingly different universes, potentially limiting the ability of any opposing narrative to break through with the faithful:
KEY FINDINGS
- Trump followers are nearly 12.0x more likely than average to read Men’s Humor, which, in its own words is “A website full of humor, hot girls, funny videos, and more. What else could a guy ask for?”
- While John Kasich is often mentioned as a “moderate” relative to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, his followers are dramatically more polarized than Trump supporters in their media consumption. Kasich followers match or exceed even Ted Cruz’s followers in their strict adherence to conservative media – having 126.0x higher affinity for the conservative National Review than Twitter average.
- Hillary Clinton’s followers are tuned into the political soap opera, being 18.5x more likely than average to read Politico. They also show an interest in pure celebrity soap opera media, reading Gawker and Jezebel (a Gawker Media site) at 18.5x and 19.0x higher than the Twitter average, respectively.
- Bernie Sanders reaches prototypical millennials, consuming highly digestible and technology focused media. His followers read the statistics-drivenFiveThirtyEight and the science blog Nerdist at 21.0x and 23.0x the Twitter average, respectively.