Neither Partisan nor Ideological: The Structure of Joe Rogan’s Audience

• In Event: Media and Communication Paths to Depolarization

Abstract

According to the Pew Research Center, half of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past year, and one-in-five of those listeners say they listen to a podcast nearly every day. In an increasingly fragmenting information environment, podcasts are coming of age, yet are receiving limited scholarly attention. For example, journal Political Communication has only featured ten peer-reviewed articles that mention the word podcast. We aim to develop a better understanding of this emerging medium by focusing on one of the most popular podcasts in the United States: The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE).

Estimates show that every JRE episode draws about 11 million listeners, nearly four times as many people as prime-time cable news hosts like Sean Hannity (Fox News), which are extensively studied by political communication scholars. The podcast has even been credited with launching Andrew Yang’s political career. Yet, despite its commercial and cultural successes, we know little about Rogan’s audience and the appeal of his show.

In this paper we offer a preliminary examination of Rogan’s audience members- their socio demographic characteristics, political, social, and cultural values and beliefs, and media use behaviors. Using a 2 wave national probability sample obtained in October, 2022 and April, 2023 (Wave 1 N=2,874; Wave 2 N=2,069), early results suggest that Rogan’s appeal extends across traditional political subgroups, transcending partisan divides, but perhaps reinforcing cultural ideologies related to epistemic beliefs, trust in institutions, and attitudes about race and gender. Based on these findings, we propose a typology of the Rogan audience, one that juxtaposes standard political variables with cultural constructs that have distinct political implications, allowing us to better conceptualize potential mechanisms of effects moving forward.

Authors

• Dominik Andrzej Stecula, The Ohio State University

• Dhavan Vinod Shah, University of Wisconsin

• Michael W. Wagner, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Dannagal G. Young, University of Delaware