A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Vice president and candidate Kamala Harris has been stepping up her media appearances lately. She's been getting criticism that she's not spending enough time in the public eye.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Harris has done traditional shows like "60 Minutes." And also hitting the podcast circuit last week, she turned up on the podcast "All The Smoke" hosted by former NBA champs Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MATT BARNES: As someone who's been the first in a lot of spaces you've been in - a woman of color, knocking on the door to possibly be the next president - how do you protect your mental health and your mental space?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, No. 1 rule - don't read the comments (laughter).
BARNES: They're nasty.
INSKEEP: This was the same interview on which Harris made news by saying she supports legalizing cannabis.
MARTÍNEZ: Harris' opponent, Donald Trump, has also done a string of podcasts. So what's the media strategy here? Let's ask Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer. So Sara, what do the candidates believe they have to gain by appearing on these podcasts?
SARA FISCHER: Well, in the final months and weeks leading up to the election, you actually just don't have much to lose in not doing them, right? This election is going to come down to just a few hundred thousand - maybe even less - votes in some swing states. And so the key here is to make sure that you are reaching people, reminding people of who you are and what your platform is ahead of the election.
Now, typically in previous elections, you could go to television. You could do print interviews. You could do radio interviews to try to reach those people, and those mediums still do have massive footprint. But what's different now is that podcasts, which are able to go viral on platforms like TikTok, have really big audiences in a way that they didn't even quite have four years ago. Now those are seen as opportunities for candidates to reach different kinds of voters, whether it's, with the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, young women or the podcast that you just mentioned, which reaches a ton of young men and young people. This is the way that candidates feel like they can reach more people in the final days and weeks.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, if you have a specific slice, Sara, of people that you want to reach, there is a podcast for that. That's for sure. There's a lot of them. But when you and I are doing interviews, I mean, we have journalistic principles that we follow, so do these podcasts follow any of that?
FISCHER: Typically not. I mean, these are typically run by hosts who are influencers. Maybe they're former reality stars or former athletes. They are not people who typically have journalistic training, although you'll see they prepare for interviews. Sometimes they'll reference sound bites. They'll try to make sure that this interview feels very authoritative. But at the end of the day, the same type of journalistic standards and scrutiny that you and I would pose on an interview don't exist here. For example, with the "Call Her Daddy" interview that Kamala Harris did, that entire interview, for the most part, was really just dedicated to women's rights, abortion. And these are topics that are winning issues for Kamala Harris. She was not pressed on that interview about things like the border or immigration or debt or taxes, and the list goes on and on.
And so the reason why I think you're going to have pressure to do both types of environments - a formal sit-down interview with a journalistic outlet like an NPR or, you know, in the case of last night, "60 minutes" - it's because voters want to know more about your actual platform, as opposed to if you're sitting down with the podcaster, they're just getting to know a little bit more about you personally.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer. Sara, thanks.
FISCHER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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