Communications technology drives global populism more than elite failures researcher argues

What was said

"When something is kind of universal, it's happening everywhere regardless of the society you're looking at, and it's happening across the world, you look for some kind of technological change. And I think that basically the big one here is communications technology. First of all, there was the era of 24-hour cable news, and then the internet and social media."

Hanania presents polling data showing no correlation between populist attitudes in a population and populist political success, suggesting the rise isn't due to elite failures. Instead, he argues 24-hour cable news, internet, and social media democratized information flow, allowing previously marginalized views like 9/11 trutherism and anti-vaccine positions to find political representation. He traces how Fox News placement in cable lineups directly increased cultural issue prioritization.