'Biggest change in our political world': Expert says 'key' election factor being ignored

Most people analyzing the 2024 election results are ignoring a "key factor," a news expert said on Saturday.

Steven Waldman, chair of the Rebuild Local News Coalition, wrote a piece for Politico over the weekend in which he argues that most post-election "post-mortems" are ignoring a "key factor" in how people vote.

"Latinos, young men, non-college-educated white people, suburban women. The exit polls and political analysis invariably focuses on the changing behavior of demographic groups," Waldman said.

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The expert then continued:

"That ignores a big determinant of political behavior: where people get their news and information. It’s odd how little attention has been given to this, given that in the past decade we’ve had a revolution in how information flows."

Waldman went on to say, "The exit polls did not ask about media consumption, so we need to look for indirect clues."

"NBC asked the question in April when President Joe Biden was still in the race, and the results were dramatic. Among people who got their news from 'newspapers,' Biden was winning 70-21. Among people who got their news from 'YouTube/Google,' Trump led 55-39," he wrote in the news article. "The exit polls this week did show that some of the biggest shifts in voting patterns came among young people and Latinos, two groups whose media consumption differs from the national average."

Other evidence includes that "Biden won 18- to 21-year-olds by 60-36 percent; Harris won only 55-42 percent."

"There’s no group where the information consumption has changed more than young people. While 3 percent of seniors get their information from social media, 46 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds do," Waldman wrote.

Waldman shared the article on social media, saying, "My piece in politico points to the biggest change in our political world: how information flows."

"Latinos and young people, who shifted right, disproportionately get news from social media," Waldman added.

Read the report here.