WASHINGTON DC, MARCH 29, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson talks about ‘Populism and the Right” during National Review Institute Ideas Summit, March 29th 2019 at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Washington DC. Carlson spoke about many topics at the summit which was themed ‘The Case for the American Experiment’. These included dropping testosterone, rising suicide rates, unemployment, drugs addiction, and social hierarchy. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images (Photo)
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Former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson reached an audience that any cable news network executive would kill for – as his debut 10-minute video captioned “Ep.1” of the brand new “Tucker on Twitter” was seen more than 35 million times by Wednesday morning.
Carlson’s “show,” that debuted on social media Tuesday, was basically an opinion-based, monologue with no guests. He also had little to support his numerous claims.
Carlson stated in the video, “As from today, we are on Twitter.” There are no gatekeepers, we’ve been told. “If that’s not true, we will leave.”
Why Short but Not Focused?
Carlson was able to tackle several topics within just 10 minutes. Carlson might be used to having a longer program that allowed him to cover multiple topics.
Jason Mollica has been a lecturer at American University School of Communication and is the director of their program.
Mollica said that Carlson might need to focus on a single topic. “Trying to condense a show of 40 minutes into 10 minutes won’t work,” Mollica continued. To repeat his style on Twitter would be impossible.
This really isn’t about Tucker Carlson, as it is about Twitter—which began as a microblog where individuals could share quick thoughts with friends and colleagues before it became a broadcast tool to reach the masses. Both users kept their posts short.
Video programs on the Service can only be ten minutes long.
“Unless there was a real-time event happening, Twitter has shown to be unsuitable for this type of content,” said Mollica. The service doesn’t appear to have a purpose in hosting 10-minute-long video. YouTube has video for that, or listen to podcasts. Twitter is a place to share quick videos, thoughts and updates.
Is the Audience Going to Tune in Again?
Carlson’s first episode had a huge audience. But there’s no doubt that many viewers tuned in because they were curious. Carlson will have to work hard to convince those viewers to return for “Ep.2”, and even beyond.
Mollica suggested that “the vast majority of Twitter users do not care about Carlson.”
Carlson had a nightly Fox audience of just under three million. Greg Sterling, the co-founder and social media expert at Near Media said that he has almost 8 million Twitter followers. The’show’ he hosts on Twitter may reach similar audiences but it is unlikely. “The more interesting question is whether Elon Musk wants to promote more of this type of programming in an effort to evolve Twitter content.”
Twitter will not become the YouTube of today. There are many high-profile users who already make use of it.
Mollica stated that it would be necessary to find someone with the capability of attracting an audience. It’s important to have something that will attract the audience, which is much more than just expressing your opinions about the news of that particular day.
Twitter will also not benefit much from such content. Too many platforms are competing to get the same audience.
Sterling explained that “Twitter does not stream and is still an environment which can be toxic for advertisers.” There is not a lot of money on Twitter to make it worth following Carlson. YouTube has a better chance of being successful in this respect.”
The Abyss: How to Avoid It
Carlson may have been a huge cable news star—but whether he can retain his audience via 10-minute videos has yet to be seen. As Mollica pointed out, Carlson was more in need of this than Twitter.
Mollica said, “He’ll only do his guest appearances on lower-tier channels if he doesn’t have an audience.” “This helps Carlson fill in the void.”
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