This article compares populist media styles on US cable news and in online video. It juxtaposes the conservative cable giant Fox News with the progressive YouTube-based network the Young Turks (TYT). TYT stands as one of YouTube’s longest running and most successful “news and politics” channels on the platform. This progressive digital network has long embraced a populist anchoring style that resembles Fox News and the style of its conservative YouTube competitors. This study establishes the stylistic affinity between TYT and Fox News and then explains how it is driven by a similar commercial-economic logic that prizes “loyal” viewership and “intense” engagement above all else. Shifting from political economy to media activism, this article also chronicles TYT’s role in creating the Justice Democrats, the progressive PAC that recruited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other “Squad” members. This article seeks to complicate the commonly held association between populism and political conservatism.
BattaglioStephanie. 2003. “How Young Fox Slyly Moved Past CNN: Flash (or Fluff ) Helped Channel Win News Crown.” New York Daily News, January15.
2.
BauerAJ. 2017. “Before ‘Fair and Balanced’: Conservative Media Activism and the Rise of the New Right.” PhD dissertation, New York University.
3.
BeckettCharlieDeuzeMark. 2016. “On the Role of Emotion in the Future of Journalism.” Social Media + Society2 (3): 1.
4.
BenklerYochaiRobertsHalFarisRobert. 2018. Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
5.
benravensfan20. 2011. “MSNBC’s Ed Schultz To Rush Limbaugh: ‘Wrap Your Fat Ass In The Flag’ Over Wisconsin Protests.” YouTube, February19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErkBkxWNbxI.
6.
BergenMarkTribbittMaya. 2020. “Fox News Got a Big Boost on YouTube from an Algorithm Change.” Bloomberg, July10.
7.
BurgessJeanGreenJoshua. 2018. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. 2nd ed.Cambridge: Polity Press.
8.
CohenLizabeth. 1991. Making of a New Deal. Industrial Workers of Chicago, 1919–1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9.
CouldryNick. 2004. “Theorising Media as Practice.” Social Semiotics14 (2): 115–32.
10.
DenningMichael. 1998. The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Verso.
11.
FlamHelenaKingDebra. 2005. Emotions and Social Movements. New York, NY: Routledge.
12.
GillespieTarleton. 2010. “The Politics of ‘Platforms.’” New Media & Society12 (3): 347–64.
13.
GrigoryanNuneSuetzlWolfgang. 2019. “Hybridized Political Participation.” In Alternative Media Meets Mainstream Politics: Activist Nation Rising, edited by AtkinsonJ.LindaK., 181–98. Washington, DC: Lexington Books.
14.
GrimRyan. 2019. We’ve Got People: From Jesse Jackson to Alexandria Ocasio, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement. Washington, DC: Strong Arm Press.
15.
GrindstaffLaura. 2002. The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
16.
HallStuart. 1998. “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular’.” In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, edited by StoreyJ., 574. London: Prentice Hall.
17.
HonanMat. 2016. “Why Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Went All in on Live Video.” Buzzfeed, April6.
18.
JenkinsHenry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.New York, NY: New York University Press.
19.
JurkowitzMarkMitchellAmyShearerElisaWalkerMason. 2020. “U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided.” Pew Research Center, January24.
20.
LewisBecca. 2018. “Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on Youtube.” Data & Society1 (16): 18–20.
21.
Mad as Hell. 2014. Directed by Andrew Napier. Oscilloscope Laboratories. DVD.
22.
McDowell-NaylorDeclanThomasRichardCushionStephen. 2021. “Alternative Online Political Media: Challenging or Exacerbating Populism and Mis/Disinformation?” In The Routledge Companion to Media Misinformation and Populism, edited by WaisbordS.HowardT., 173. New York, NY: Routledge.
23.
McKnightDavid. 2013. Murdoch’s Politics: How One Man’s Thirst for Wealth and Power Shapes Our World. London: Pluto.
24.
MillerLiz. 2011. “The Young Turks–MSNBC Dispute is a Cautionary Tale.” Reuters, July25.
25.
MudgeSL. 2011. “What’s Left of Leftism?: Neoliberal Politics in Western Party Systems, 1945-2004.” Social Science History35 (3): 337–80.
26.
MungerKevinPhillipsJoseph. 2019. “A Supply and Demand Framework for YouTube Politics.” OSF3–4: 23.
27.
NBC Los Angeles. 2016. “Thousands of Bernie Sanders Supporters Protest CNN Building in Hollywood.”April3.
28.
PeckReece. 2019a. Interview by Author, 30, July. Video Recording. Culver City, CA: TYT Studios.
29.
PeckReece. 2019b. Interview by Author, 24, May. Video Recording. Culver City, CA: TYT Studios.
30.
PeckReece. 2019. Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
RaeMaria. 2021. “Hyperpartisan News: Rethinking the Media for Populist Politics.” New Media & Society23 (5): 1117–32.
32.
Reliable Sources. 2018. “Uygur on the ‘Blue Wave’ and Progressive Media.” CNN.com, July15.
33.
RibeiroManoel HortaOttoniRaphaelAlmeidaVirgilioWestRobert. 2019. “Auditing Radicalization Pathways on YouTube.” Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT), Barcelona, January 27–30.
34.
RiederBernhardMatamoros-FernándezAriadnaCorominaÒscar. 2018. “From Ranking Algorithms to ‘Ranking Cultures’: Investigating the Modulation of Visibility in YouTube Search Results.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies24 (1): 50–68.
35.
RooseKevin. 2019. “The Making of a YouTube Radical.” The New York Times, June8.
36.
SareenAnjaliMirkinsonJack. 2013. “Ed Schultz leaving MSNBC weeknights, moving to Weekends.” Huffington Post, March13.
37.
Seitz-WaldAlex, and Associated Press. 2018. “Rep. Joe Crowley Loses Primary to 28-year-old Newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.” NBC News, June27.
38.
SellaMarshall. 2001. “The Red-State Network.” New York Times, June24.
39.
ShermanGabriel. 2014. The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News—and Divided a Country. New York, NY: Random House.
40.
SkocpolThedaWilliamsonVanessa. 2012. The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 123–124.
41.
StelterBrian. 2011. “Sharpton Appears to Win Anchor Spot on MSNBC.” New York Times, July20.
42.
StockingGalenvan KesselPatrickBarthelMichaelMatsaKaterina EvaKhuzamMaya. 2020. “Many Americans get news on YouTube, where news organizations and independent producers thrive side by side.” Pew Research Center, September28.
43.
StruppJoe. 2004. “Murdoch Says Fox Would Have Been ‘Crucified’ for CBS Mistake.” Editor & Publisher, September22.
44.
The Guardian. 2018. “‘This is the beginning’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Victory Speech—Video.” The Guardian, June28.
