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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Why You Keep Seeing Biden Falling on Instagram

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Lizza, Obama, Wickenden, Wnyc, News, Politics, Washington, President, Barack

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If your Instagram Reels and TikToks are inundated with videos of President Joe Biden tripping or stumbling over his words, you’re not alone. Americans are increasingly tuning out the news and turning to social media for their political fix, and the online world is delivering an abundance of right-wing memes and misinformation. The New Yorker staff writer Clare Malone joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss our shifting media habits, why the 2016 election is surfacing in new contexts online, and how both campaigns are relying on algorithms to gain momentum ahead of November. 

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Transcript

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Democrats think Biden is too old to be an effective president, as do Republicans. So I think it's this innate thing where people already are inclined to say, listen, this guy is old and Biden does have a lot of falls.

1:23.5

We know that traffic to news sites is way down and traffic to social social media sites, short-form video sites like TikTok or Instagram Reels is up.

1:33.0

And so people are just seeing more and more of these videos.

1:35.8

And it's kind of coalescing in this very interesting.

1:38.5

A vacuum is being filled by TikTok videos and genuine voter concerns about Biden's age.

1:45.9

That's my colleague Claire Malone.

1:48.7

Claire is a staff writer for The New Yorker,

1:50.7

where she reports on the shifting media landscape across the U.S.

1:54.4

This past week, Claire wrote about the memeification of American politics,

1:59.1

in which she suggests that the result of this year's presidential election may very well come down to a few internet memes.

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