'Morning Joe' contributor worries about losing relevance as Americans tune out cable

"Morning Joe" contributor Mike Barnicle lamented that a growing number of Americans are no longer getting daily news from channels like MSNBC but are instead getting news from social media platforms.

MSNBC has seen a decline in viewership since President-elect Donald Trump's victory against Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Election Day, the liberal network has experienced its lowest l of viewers in nearly 10 years, nearly a 40% drop since the election season.

While MSNBC has seen a great drop in viewers, such declines are not unique to the cable news outlet.

'We meet news consumers where they are because they’re not here, and that’s the problem.'

The Pew Research Center reported that one in five Americans say they get their news from social media influencers. More news influencers identify as Republican or conservative (27%) than as Democratic or liberal (21%).

“Mike, that’s the challenge. You grew up in a newsroom. ... I mean that’s a challenge for a lot of mainstream media sources is do they make themselves relevant again,” host Joe Scarborough said on Tuesday. “Here, 20% of adults who actually get influencers on social media. Maybe somebody who makes baskets and while they’re making baskets, they look up and say, 'Vote for candidate X.'"

"I don’t know how we make ourselves relevant again because we can’t compete with 20-second snippets on an iPhone, walking up the street and getting your entire news digest of the day in less than a minute on your phone as you’re walking in a crowd with coffee in one hand and your phone in the other. I don’t know how we catch up to that,” Barnicle replied.

MSNBC analyst Eugene Robinson suggested the channel start doing its own 20-second videos in order to reach a wider audience. "We [should] meet news consumers where they are because they’re not here, and that’s the problem," he said.

Pew Research's study further found another reason for influencers' success in a market where the mainstream media has a very low approval rating: 77% of news influencers have no affiliation or background with a news organization.

The rise of independent media during the election cycle — and Trump appearing on those platforms — has been credited with helping Republicans win the presidency by reaching the younger, male voters and convincing them to turn out on Election Day.

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