More and More Adults Get Their News From Podcasts, But Which Ones Can be Trusted?
Author:
Date:
06/18/2024
Almost 70 million people listened to podcasts in 2023, and that’s expected to rise to more than 110 million listeners by 2029. While the podcasts cover a variety of topics, adults of all ages are increasingly turning to podcasts as a main source of news.
Of course, like all media platforms, not all podcasts provide factual and unbiased information. Podcasts providing news and news-like content come from a variety of places — from mainstream media outlets to niche groups to independent podcasters. Our analyst team has listened to almost 2,900 episodes from 730 podcasts to help savvy media consumers choose reliable sources of audio news.
Examples of all different kinds of podcasts are included on the June Media Bias Chart®. It’s impossible to include all 730 rated shows in one image, so a sample of 64 podcasts are featured on this month’s static media bias chart (see the list of 64 here).
Eight podcasts are included on the chart this month for the first time:
- Crosstalk
- Federal Newscast
- Meghan McCain Has Entered The Chat
- NewsBusters Podcast
- Plain English with Derek Thompson
- The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast
- The PoliticsGirl Podcast
- The Weekend Show
If your favorite podcasts aren’t on the June chart, you can still search for them using the Interactive Media Bias Chart® on our website, as well as our Media Bias Chart® app, available for iPhone and Android.
When you add in our web/print and TV/video ratings, our analysts have fully rated over 3,900 sources, with commercial data on over 10,900 sources. Become a subscriber today to have additional access to our data set! Our new News Nerd Pro subscription allows you to search all 3,900 sources with no limits! In addition, you’ll have the ability to filter the search results for things like ownership, content keywords, and more.
Read more about how Ad Fontes rates the news or review our monthly static charts (subscribers only). And check back next week for a monthly snapshot of TV/video sources!
If you want to stay informed on all the amazing work being done by our team, sign up for our free bimonthly email newsletter!
Beth Heldebrandt is a Media Research Specialist at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.
