Left Populist Media Online: A Comparative Analysis of the U.S.’s The Young Turks and Spain’s La Base

Abstract

This article compares one of Spain’s most prominent political podcasts, La Base, to the longest-running YouTube-based political talk shows in the United States, The Young Turks (TYT). This article traces the history of TYT and La Base and spotlights the biographies of network founders Cenk Uygur and Pablo Iglesias. Despite operating in quite distinct media and political systems, this study reveals striking similarities between the two progressive media organizations. Using a twenty-four-episode sample, this study also includes a comparative textual analysis of TYT and La Base’s programing content during the 2022 election cycle. These separate cases are used to theorize the concept of “left populist media” and illustrate its essential discursive components. The study’s findings contribute to the broader literature on the relationship between media and populism and provide important clues to understanding the transformation of political media underway with the ascendance of “over-the-top” video news.