How
has Donald Trump’s Hollywood celebrity status (which differs from political
celebrity) shaped his candidacy and presidency? How would you assess the role
of celebrity in American politics today? Finally, what impact, if any, do
celebrities have on politics? Reminder - you need to cite at least two of this week’s
readings to support your response.
DiSalvo 1
ReplyDeleteFrom the very beginning, Donald Trump had an advantage that many aspiring political candidates lack. His name was familiar due to his celebrity status. But more importantly, because of his career as an entertainer, he had the ability to dominate a crowd. Trump appealed to voters because of the tangible electricity conjured up at his rallies. BBC compares his campaign to a WWE tournament writing, “With Trump, politics was entertainment, and his campaign mirrored much of the razzmatazz, hype, aggression and faux controversy of one of his favourite pop culture genres, World Wrestling Federation” (Bryant). Additionally, Trump benefitted as a result of his celebrity status because his presidency was an anomaly. Never before had a man with such little political background and such a huge TV personality reached the Oval Office. As Vox, explained “Trump, after all, showed that it was possible to go straight from The Apprentice to the White House” (Skinner).
Because of his ability to entertain and the sheer uniqueness of his presidency, Americans looking for a new kind of president fell for Donald Trump’s brash confidence. Trump’s candidacy dominated the major news networks, providing him with significantly more free press than his competition, Hillary Clinton. To this day, he’s often the top story on NBC, ABC, and CBS morning news shows. As president, he continues conducting his presidency like a reality TV show. His decisions are emotionally driven, as demonstrated by his early-morning Twitter rants. He fires cabinet members with the same frequency and abruptness as he fired contestants on “The Apprentice.” Each day of his presidency leaves people in suspense, bracing for what is going to happen in the next episode. CNN writes, “We have hush money, secret recordings, an adult film star, a former Playboy playmate, witnesses "flipping" and a whole lot of tweets. And that's just based on what we've seen so far” (Obeidallah). While not always positive, the uncommon presidency of Donald Trump has captivated American audiences in the way any riveting TV series would.
Donald Trump used his position as a celebrity to portray himself as a Washington outsider, who knew how to build up a business, relate to crowds, and gain media coverage. I believe the role of celebrity in politics today has been to involve people in politics who would not normally engage. Trump’s celebrity appeal gained him a coalition of voters known as the “Pero-tistas” who, according to The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd, “feel drawn into the electoral process by mavericky outsiders” (Lozada). For this group, Trump was presidential material because he was un-presidential. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Kanye West have become politically involved, which has had a significant impact. Taylor Swift’s recent public stance on the Tennessee Senate race is partially attributed to the 65,000 person voter spike in the 24 hours following her post (France).
DiSalvo 2
DeleteCelebrities humanize politics. Because of Donald Trump’s presidency Americans have developed passionate opinions about politics. More students have decided to major in political science than ever before, and this change is visible at Quinnipiac. Just as celebrities have an ability to make a cause or a video go “viral,” by casting a celebrity as president,Trump has made talking about politics “viral.” Oprah Winfrey’s speeches inspire people the same way Donald Trump’s do, because she’s a celebrity. We trust her political endorsements the same way we trust her book recommendations. Previously, the celebrity’s role in politics was to primarily stay away. But now, Donald Trump has fused Hollywood and Washington DC. Celebrities have a role of taking a side in political discussion, and the side they take can have a significant impact on the side their followers will take.
Celebrities become celebrities, not because of their voting record in Congress, but because of how they have been able to relate to people and gain a following. While trying to obtain office, politicians try to become celebrities by relating to people and gaining a following. Trump entered politics having already done that. Donald Trump proved in 2016 that it is easier to become a politician if you’re already a celebrity.
Works Cited
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.", 18 January, 2018.
France, Lisa R. "Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes After Taylor Swift Post.", 9 October, 2018.
Lozada, Carlos. "How to Slice, Dice and make Nice with the Trump Coalition.", 7 June, 2018.
Obeidallah, Dean. "Trump's Presidency as TV Series Will be Binge-Worthy.", 6 August, 2018.
Skinner, Robert. "is Trump Making Celebrity Candidates Less Likely?.", 26 October, 2018.
Donald Trump is unlike any presidential candidate we’ve ever seen. The closest comparison heading into election season was Ronald Reagan, who had come from a life of celebrity into the political realm. Trump, however, transcended the way we look at elections. He entered the arena at just the right point, too; the American people didn’t want a stick-in-the-mud career politician. They wanted someone new and exciting, and Trump brought just that with his celebrity status: “Trump more than met one of the main requirements of modern-day political success: the ability to entertain. It mattered not that he had only a limited grasp of policy and world affairs. More important was his talent as a performer,” (Bryant 2018). The issue, however, was while his celebrity helped fuel an effective campaign, it severely limits his ability to pass laws and establish effective policy.
ReplyDeleteWhether we like it or not, celebrities have a large impact on politics, both local and national. Many celebrities have spoken out against against Donald Trump, as well as local politicians that they do not support. The larger the following that said celebrity has, the more pushback that these politicians will see. Fans of celebrities will mobilize quickly to support their star: “Guthrie said traffic to her organization increased after Swift's post, with 155,940 unique visitors coming to Vote.org in the 24 hours following, compared to the average number of daily users of 14,078,” (Respers France 2018). Taylor Swift has one of the largest celebrity followings in the United States. She chose to use her power to influence young voters, and the proof was in the pudding for Vote.org.
Based on this information, the impact of celebrities on politics is two-fold. On one hand, they can have a positive impact on mobilizing voters, increasing political participation and general interest in the issues. That being said, they can also have a negative impact. People voting solely based on their interest in a celebrity, and simply parroting said celebrity’s beliefs, takes away from the democratic structure of our electoral system. While most celebrities mean well with their political interests, the beliefs of said celebrities may not accurately represent what the country needs. A more-qualified candidate could lose an election they’d otherwise win because a celebrity, and their followers, had a negative influence.
Regardless of the detracting factors, political parties will continue to employ celebrities to popularize their candidates: “Republicans can’t seem to decide if celebrity opinions are relevant or not — though they are finding them useful in one way or another,” (Scott 2018). Celebrities take away from the democratic process in a sense, as they distract people from the actual issues at hand, and distract from people learning more about the actual candidates. That being said, they continue to be marketing darlings, and those with heavy social media following continue to have more and more influence in situations of higher importance, like politics. They aren’t going away, so political parties will continue to steer into the skid of attracting celebrities to spread their campaigns.
Works Cited
DeleteBryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
France, Lisa Respers. “Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes after Taylor Swift Post.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html.
Scott, Eugene. “The GOP Can't Decide If Celebrities Should Be Ignored or given a Seat at the Table.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Oct. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/09/gop-cant-decide-if-celebrities-should-be-ignored-or-given-seat-table/?utm_term=.da615dcb8fd2.
Nardone 1
ReplyDeleteWhen President Obama left office he did so as a celebrity. His campaigns and presidency showed us that the president was an everyday person who could make fun of himself and keep up with pop culture, two things that helped him connect with young voters. The fame Obama garnered worldwide was no secret. Both he and the First Lady did their time on the press circuit to gain support for their infinitives. This celebrity status was different than any achieved by past presidents. Nick Bryant discusses the enigma of political celebrity in a piece for BBC saying, “A decade on, the lines between America’s political culture and celebrity culture have become even more blurred, which helps explain the rise of Donald Trump.” I think Trump thought the only way he could become more famous would to become president. In a way, Trump took the celebrity of the presidency and mixed it with Hollywood celebrity and brought the significance of both together to win in 2016. Because of his time in Hollywood, Trump was able to skip the basics if a campaign in which the candidate has to prove themselves to be worthy. Trump’s fame and money was proof enough for his supporters. He was able to separate himself from the other primary candidates by comparing his stardom to theirs and belittling them. Bryant says, “With Trump, politics was entertainment, and his campaign mirrored much of the razzmatazz, hype, aggression and faux controversy of one of his favorite pop culture genres, World Wrestling Federation, which had blurred the lines between sport and show business. The nicknames, like ‘Little Marco’ and ‘Crooked Hillary’. The stadium rallies. The smackdown one-liners. The merchandising. All that was missing was leotards and body oil.” It was a show on the world stage with rounds of elimination and a winner, in a way this election was exactly like a reality competition show.
Nardone 2
DeleteCelebrities have become increasingly important to politics and political causes. We expected celebrities to be involved with NGOs and charitable organizations, in fact, if they are not involved they are criticized. The evolution of this is celebrity involvement in politics. We cannot demand celebs make a difference with their money and power, then be shocked when they get passionate. I think the role of celebrities is to help the public understand and to lead them. We saw this with Taylor Swift, “The number of new voters in Tennessee also spiked, she said, with 2,144 signing up in the more than a day since Swift's encouragement. That number is close to the entire amount of new registrations in the state for the month of September which was 2,811,” (Respers France, 2018). Taylor Swift and countless other celebrities have been working over the last few months to convince their fans to vote. Some will argue that using celebrities as political surrogates doesn't actually work, but I would point to the reaction to Swift’s comments as proof that celebrities have more power than politicians. Celebrities play a vital role in politics because of their influence. Politicians know it and that's why Micheal B. Jordan and Oprah were knocking on doors for Stacey Abrams.
People can learn a lot from Hollywood whether it is through the actors or through film and television. I think a lot of young people got into politics through watching television. Shows like the West Wing, Scandal, House of Cards and Madame Secretary educate people. While there is some dramatization, the premises are accurate. Washington and Hollywood go hand in hand, each drawing from the other to push forward.
Works Cited:
Bryant, Nick. (2018, January 18). Donald Trump and the pop culture presidency. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency
Respers France, Lisa. Voter registration reportedly spikes after Taylor Swift post. (2018, October 9). CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html
Brianna Caponi
ReplyDeleteThe moment Donald Trump entered the campaign ring for the 2016 election, it was clear he had an advantage. Most politicians when taking the first step into politics must dedicate a considerable about of energy and resources to advertising, so that they can get the word out about their candidate and explain to the public who they are. Donald Trump was already known nationally as a mogul, he was known for being a shrewd businessman and for his role on his TV show, The Celebrity Apprentice. This status of celebrity and recognition on a national level before Donald Trump even became a candidate is impressive, and it impacted his campaign which followed the next two years. According the article, I read from The Guardian, they spoke about the idea that Trump has actually become more entertaining basically than actual Hollywood. In becoming this person that we talk about everyday due to his stunts and comments, he has ultimately become more interesting than those that would say attend the Oscars. The article states, “Hollywood stars are playing parts and so are presidents: their political identity is theatrically manufactured,” (The Guardian). This statement ultimately means that there has and historically will continue to have discourse between the views of those in Hollywood versus Washington D.C. The difference between what is historical and what is currently happening is that Donald Trump dominates entertainment and news simultaneously right now.
The other article I read was from BBC, and it followed a comparison how popularity and celebrity status both helped Obama and Trump get into office, but how Trump has ultimately mastered this art. It is very much worth noting that the article states, “As with Barack Obama, celebrity was not the only reason why Donald Trump won. His businessman acumen, and his status as a political outsider were key. Both helped make the billionaire a working-class hero. However, Trump more than met one of the main requirements of modern-day political success: the ability to entertain. It mattered not that he had only a limited grasp of policy and world affairs. More important was his talent as a performer. A ratings success on television became a vote-winning success in politics,” (BBC). Ultimately, I think Donald Trump’s celebrity status propelled him onto a platform where many people were susceptible to his rhetoric, and it worked. The role of celebrity in American politics is hard to talk about, but this administration has changed the way we talk about it, we now have rappers in the White House, a former reality TV show star as our leader, so the perspective and views which were once ignored can no longer be. Celebrities are people with the opportunity to share their opinions with millions, on various platforms. As such, I think it’s not wise to ignore the potential impact that could have on public perception and opinion. I don’t necessarily think celebrities impact policy, but they impact people and that is what matters in a democracy like the USA.
References:
Bryant, N. (2018, January 18). Culture - Donald Trump and the pop culture presidency.
Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency
Bradshaw, P. (2018, March 09). Celebrity-in-chief: Is Trump the only true star left? Retrieved
from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/09/is-trump-the-only-true-star-left-celebrity-in-chief-hollywood-oscars
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and
Practice. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
Donald Trump’s self-promoting skills are extraordinary. For years following up to his presidential bid, Trump possessed mastery in bending the media to stay mainstream. Though he was just a real estate mogul, Trump managed to keep cameras pointed at him by flaunting his money. His likeness and frequency of appearing in the media rose when he hung around his lavish-living friends. His transition from being the average rich business man to reality television icon was seamless, as Trump, “…knew instinctively that he could enhance his own stature by being seen with celebrities, and he also knew he could do it by breaking the rules and bashing some of those same famous people” (Fisher 2018). As the saying goes, “golden keys can open any door”, and the same holds true with Trump’s wealth causing the media and celebrities lining up at his doorstep. It is no surprise that Trump utilized this same strategy during his presidential campaign in 2016. Since he already had such a huge following from his Hollywood career, career politicians were unknowingly at a large disadvantage on the campaign trail; “No other president has come to the White House as deeply schooled in the methods and madness of the American craft of celebrity. And no other president has used celebrities in quite the same way — both as inspiration to mold policies and as foils to entertain and satisfy his political base” (Fisher 2018). Celebrities and the media are the reason that Trump has been in mainstream pop-culture for decades, which is ironic considering his new-found animosity toward Hollywood and journalists.
ReplyDeleteTrump has been very inconsistent with his view on celebrities. Although his administration has made it clear that Hollywood is the enemy, Trump has invited celebrities like Kanye West to the White House to discuss social issues. Pop-culture icons have been present in the Oval Office for over a multitude of presidencies. However, the catch in Trump’s White House is that it seems that he will only interact with celebrities who are hyper-loyal to the president, like West. This defeats the purpose of discussing social issues with celebrities, some of whom use their fame to incite change in America. Meanwhile, this current administration has provoked celebrities who were not originally politically active to share their views. Taylor Swift received backlash from the GOP when she publicly shared that she was voting for two Democrats in Tennessee this November, but this has a huge impact on politics. As comedian Sarah Silverman said, “…Taylor has a massive amount of reach. She has 112 million Instagram followers. She’s not just a pop star. She has the following of two Italys” (Byrne 2018). Taylor Swift’s fan base is so big that 65,000 Tennesseans registered to vote in less than a day after she posted her thoughts on Instagram (France 2018). This has huge implications for the future, because we could very well see celebrities almost mobilizing their fan base to become more politically active. The GOP may argue that celebrities do not deserve a say in politics, but there is a trend occurring among celebrities reaching out to their fan base to make change. It is similar to a personalized GOTV campaign, where celebrities get their fans excited to vote, since at the end of the day change affects everyone.
Works Cited
DeleteByrne, Suzy. “Sarah Silverman Blasts GOP Hypocrisy for Telling Taylor Swift to 'Stay out of Politics' but Giving Kanye West 'a Free Ticket to the White House'.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 11 Oct. 2018, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/sarah-silverman-blasts-gop-hypocrisy-telling-taylor-swift-stay-politics-giving-kanye-west-free-ticket-white-house-162409996.html.
Fisher, Marc. “Master of Celebrity - How Trump Uses — and Bashes — the Famous to Boost Himself.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/master-of-celebrity-how-trump-uses--and-bashes--the-famous-to-boost-himself/2018/06/20/fef51c98-6b33-11e8-bf8c-f9e.
France, Lisa Respers. “Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes after Taylor Swift Post.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html.
Scott, Eugene. “Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey and Why Celebrity Outreach Isn't a Great Solution for Politicians Who Want to Connect.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Nov. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/01/kanye-west-oprah-winfrey-why-celebrity-outreach-isnt-great-solution-politicians-who-want-connect/?utm_term=.c9077e986169.
President Trump was elected as a pop president in an age of pop idols and celebrity worship. His presidency was almost based entirely around ‘Trump the celebrity.’ The Apprentice solidified Trump as a reality super star “Donald Trump’s great success was to turn the 2016 presidential campaign into an extension of his reality show franchise, and to co-opt all the cable news channels into broadcasting it free of charge. He also built his own media platform, on Twitter and Facebook,” (Bryant). Because Trump is a Hollywood celebrity, he is automatically newsworthy. He was able to get massive amounts of cable coverage, with little effort. People are generally interested in what Hollywood celebrities have to say and think, especially about politics.
ReplyDeleteI believe that celebrity is almost a necessary part of politics today. Our current president is a mega star, he loves to entertain “Nixon upset his admirers when the truth about his private foul temper and bad language was revealed – but Trump’s Twitter feed is like a Watergate tape with a loudspeaker attached. He senses that his cantankerous, boorish, semi-satirical, complacent shtick plays well and does it deliberately: the very essence of stardom,” (Bradshaw). His celebrity adds to his act. Generally, people believe that for any one candidate to take down Trump, they must be another celebrity or mega star. Only someone as big of a celebrity as Trump may have the power to out run him. Another reason celebrity is relevant in politics is because people like The Rock and Will Smith have teased they may be getting into the political world. Trump may have created a trend where we see more Hollywood celebrities playing active roles in politics.
It seems to me that celebrities have a pretty big impact on politics and peoples voting behavior. There are lots of people who look to celebrities as role models (whether or not that’s a good thing, we shall see). People will often engage in whatever their role models are active in or vocal about. This effect is demonstrated by Taylor Swifts recent political comments “On Sunday, days after her tour ended, Ms. Swift endorsed two Tennessee Democrats for office, denounced Marsha Blackburn, a Republican Senate candidate in the state who is backed by President Trump, and encouraged people to register to vote. Less than 24 hours later, more than 160,000 people had done so. Call it the Swift bump. It’s two years too late for 2016, but right on time for the midterms,” (Mzezewa). This large number of voter’s registration is no coincidence. Swift’s comments had an immediate impact on voter registration. This is one of the best examples to demonstrate that politics are impacted by celebrities.
Works Cited:
Bradshaw, Peter. "Celebrity-in-Chief: Is Trump the Only True Star Left?" The Guardian, 11 July 2018.
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.
Mzezewa, Tariro. "I Loved Kanye West and Hated Taylor Swift. Then 2018 Happened." New York Times, 11 Oct. 2018.
Donald Trump was well known before he ran for president in 2016. Having no political background many people were confused with his decision to run for president. Celebrity culture and political culture are blended more now than ever before. Trump has something that many other politicians do not have; the ability to entertain (Bryant). Trump’s rallies are loud and energetic just like rock concerts, which often times make the news not because of the speech, but because of the atmosphere. In a BBC article, Donald Trump is compared to a WWE tournament, “With Trump, politics was entertainment, and his campaign mirrored much of the razzmatazz, hype, aggression and faux controversy of one of his favourite pop culture genres, World Wrestling Federation” (Bryant). After Trump’s electoral win, many thought there would be a wave of celebrity candidates. With Taylor Swift recently coming out and writing about her Democratic votes and Kanye West’s visit to the White House, many celebrities are surprising us. Trump’s Hollywood celebrity status has made it hard to believe that he has America’s best interest at heart. Almost everything he says is used against him and turned into political satire. He has no experience but is extremely well known. Some Americans thought he was different and unique and would be a fresh change to American politics. Donald Trump and performer Kanye West have an interesting friendship. Kanye West who once said “slavery is a choice” calls Donald Trump his “brother” even though Trump has a history of making racial remarks and enforcing things such as “stop and frisk” which hurt black people (Mzezewa). Trump takes advice from other celebrities instead of consulting his administration and other politicians, “Given the current president’s obsession with celebrities — including himself — it’s not unlikely that he will take policy advice from Mr. West when they meet. In fact, Mr. Trump has already done so from other celebrities: Earlier this year he posthumously pardoned the boxer Jack Johnson on the advice of Sylvester Stallone. More recently, Mr. Trump commuted the life sentence of Alice Johnson, who had been convicted of a nonviolent drug crime, after Mr. West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, visited the White House and mentioned Ms. Johnson” (Mzezewa). Trump treats his presidency like he is still a reality tv star. He tweets in the middle of the night ranting and constantly makes the news. Celebrities have a huge roll in politics. Many people have the idea that they are friends with celebrities because so much of their lives are shared with us. They are influenced by their decisions and remarks. After Taylor Swift openly discussed that she would be voting for the Democrat candidates in her state, according to CNN, the polls saw a spike in registration. “"We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post” (France). Celebrities can sway many people into doing something due to their large following base. Many celebrities endorse candidates. This gives the candidate the opportunity to reach specific demographics.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited:
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.
Mzezewa, Tariro. "I Loved Kanye West and Hated Taylor Swift. Then 2018 Happened." New York Times, 11 Oct. 2018.
France, Lisa Respers. "Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes After Taylor Swift Post." CNN, 9 Oct. 2018.
The article “Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency” goes into how President Obama left the office being known as a political idol in a pop idol age. “A decade on, the lines between America’s political culture and celebrity culture have become even more blurred, which helps explain the rise of Donald Trump” (Bryant, 2018). Prior to being the President of the United States, Donald Trump had no political background whatsoever. Before the 2016 presidential election, Trump was a media star with a background in being a businessman and a television personality, which is a background that is unlike any presidential candidate the United States has ever experienced before. Trump was “an attention-hungry former reality TV star parlayed his primetime prominence into the presidency” (Bryant, 2018). With this being said, his prior fame actually put Trump at an advantage prior to the 2016 presidential election because everyone was already very familiar with his name and who he was, plus “Trump more than met one of the main requirements of modern-day political success: the ability to entertain” (Bryant, 2018).
ReplyDeleteMore recently, throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, celebrities have become progressively more important in politics. Celebrities help people to understand from a different stance on politics, one that we will not get from the politicians or the President themselves. Plus, sometimes their stances are the reason that people are choosing to get involved in or following politics closely, because of how easily persuaded and influenced they are by these celebrities. One example of this would be Kanye West, one of Trump’s biggest supporters. On October 11, 2018, President Trump and Kanye West had a meeting in the Oval office to discuss some of Kanye’s personal views on topics such as prison reform, the African American unemployment rate, racism, tax breaks, the surge of violence in Kanye’s hometown of Chicago, etc. (Zaru and Phelps, 2018). For being a celebrity himself, President Trump treats celebrities who are passionate about politics with little to no respect. In the article “Master of Celebrity – How Trump Uses – and Bashes – the famous to Boost himself”, it says “Trump knew instinctively that he could enhance his own stature by being seen with celebrities, and also knew he could do it by breaking the rules and bashing some of those same famous people” (Fisher, 2018). Shockingly, Kanye West is one of the only people that Trump supposedly has yet to bash on social media. In a recent interview on Fox and Friends, “Trump spoke glowingly about the rapper calling him ‘a friend of mine’, and also called him a ‘terrific guy who loves what we’re doing for African American jobs’” (Zaru and Phelps, 2018). Although, it was not too long after this meeting that Kanye announced to the world that he’s had enough of the political world Even though it wasn’t Trump who criticized him for his own personal beliefs towards certain things, others clearly have enough for Kanye to retire being involved in the political world (Bach, 2018).
Overall, I believe that a celebrities have a pretty big impact on politics. Because of the certain influence that celebrities can have over people with their views on certain things, especially something as powerful and opinionated as politics, it is easy for celebrities to sway their fans in the direction of their views because their fans feel like they can relate to them personally.
Works Cited:
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.
Fisher, Marc. "Master of Celebrity - How Trump Uses — and Bashes — the Famous to Boost Himself." Washington Post, 21 June 2018.
Zaru, Deena and Jordyn Phelps. "Kanye West During Trump Meeting at White House: 'If He Don’t Look Good, We Don’t Look Good.'" ABC News, 11 Oct. 2018.
Bach, Natasha. "Kanye West Is Quitting Politics to Focus on 'Being Creative.'" Fortune, 31 Oct. 2018.
Lindsey Guadagni
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge difference from political celebrities and hollywood celebrities. For the first time we have a president who is a hollywood celebrity, Donald Trump. Donald Trump changed politics forever. Now more than ever celebrities are getting involved in politics and using their fan base to persuade the public to vote certain ways. The role of celebrities in American politics today shows that when u start off with a fan base instead of having to create one it helps win elections, for example Donald Trump. Donald Trump used his fame and money to his advantage and therefore won the 2016 election. Instead of having to build up a name which takes time and money he just had to tweet. Donald Trump did not spend nearly half as much as Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election in social media and ads because so many people followed his twitter and social media accounts regardless of the election, the election just gave him more followers than he already had. In a recent article published by The Guardian said “And social media is where Trump accumulated the offshore celebrity capital that helped pay for his hostile takeover of the Republican party and then the US presidency.” (Bradshaw, 2018). I believe that Donald Trump’s hollywood background helped him win the 2016 election. American politics from this day on is going to be changed forever. I firmly feel that Donald Trump will not be the only Hollywood star turned major Politician we see in this lifetime. For example, Cynthia Nixon ran for governor of New York and made it pretty far, but unlike Trump she did not focus on her well known role in Sex in The City tv series she focused on current issues in New York City mostly. Recently Kanye West visited the white house and this has made a huge impact on social media. According to ABC NEWS article/radio podcast “The president and rapper discussed prison reform, the African American unemployment rate and the surge in violence in West's hometown of Chicago, according to a statement from White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.” (ABC NEWS, 2018). Similar to Donald Trump, Kanye West has tons of followers and fans which can only help Trump’s popularity. If a politician gets a huge popular celebrity endorsement that could help or hurt their campaign big time. Pop culture is so important in today's society that our own president was a well-known celebrity before a politician and he may not be the only one we see in our lifetime. I feel that celebrities have a huge impact on politics especially in today’s demand for social media attention.
Citations:
Bradshaw, Peter. “Celebrity-in-Chief: Is Trump the Only True Star Left?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Mar. 2018, www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/09/is-trump-the-only-true-star-left-celebrity-in-chief-hollywood-oscars.
“Kanye West on Trump: 'If He Don't Look Good, We Don't Look Good' - Politics News.” ABC News Radio, 11 Oct. 2018, abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/kanye-west-on-trump-if-he-dont-look-good-we-dont-look-good.html.
Sophia Toppo
ReplyDeleteBlog 9
Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency have been heavily shaped by his celebrity status because of his ability to grain a lot of attention. Trump thrives off of attention and clearly wants as much media coverage as he can get. After years of appearing as cameo roles in movies and staring in reality TV shows, the next big step to gain attention was to become president. According to an article, “Trump showed that a celebrity could gain the highest office in the land without knowing much about issues or showing any respect for the political process” (Skinner, 1). Despite the fact that Trump had little experience with politics and is considered more of a businessman, what gave him an advantage in the 2016 election was how highly capable he was of gaining the attention of the audience and “working” a crowd with his past experience on television. Trump is basically not the typical candidate for President, and that has resulted in his likeness by voters because he was different from the experienced politicians who have run for president in the past. Trump knows how to stand out in a crowd and his personality is unforgettable. His ability to entertain was the catalyst for his campaign. “A ratings success on television became a vote-winning success in politics”(Bryant, 2). Trump had many advances over his fellow candidate because of his celebrity status and how well known and entertaining he was to the audience.
Celebrities play a major role in politics today because of many different platforms they have access too. With the large audiences celebrities attract, they can speak out politically and gain a global reaction. Despite the fact these celebrities have these platforms and audience, it may not always receive great feedback. For example, when Taylor Swift urged her crowd at a concert to vote, she received terrible backlash about how she should just “Shut up and sing,”(Buitrago). There is this idea in society that celebrities should stay out of politics and just leave their opinion out of it. But if people believe that, then why would anyone support a celebrity to run for president, AKA, Donald Trump. It’s very contradicting, but celebrities can play a major role in politics because of their ability to express their opinions and have a long lasting affect on their audience. After Taylor Swift’s speech at her concert, apparently there has been an increase in voter registration. So despite all the bad backlash, her message had an increasing affect on her audience.
DeleteOverall, celebrates have an advantage when it comes to politics because of their ability to attract the attention of the audience due to their likenessw. Although some people may think celebrities should stay out of politics, it is a good thing that celebrities speak out politically to spread awareness of certain issues and engage the audience.
Works cited
Skinner Richard. "Is Trump Making Celebrity Candidates Less Likely?" Vox, 26 Oct. 2018.
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.
Buitrago, Juan. "Shake it off: Taylor Swift's Political Endorsement Draws Praise, Backlash." Nashville Tennesseean, 8 Oct. 2018.
Donald Trump’s Hollywood celebrity status appeared to elevate him in regard to his political celebrity. Trump utilized his celebrity to propel him into the White House in an exponentially exaggerated version of what President Barack Obama did in 2008. “Senator John McCain, released an attack ad that was simply called ‘Celeb’… The messaging was blunt. The US needed a commander-in-chief not a celebrity-in-chief” (Bryant). This attack advertisements only highlighted how popular Obama was in politics and with the people. Obama ended up doing something nearly identical with Trump when he mocked him at the Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011: “Obama said that after he released his long-form birth certificate this week in order to settle the issue, Mr Trump could now turn his attention to more serious matters such as, ‘Did we fake the Moon landing?’” (“Barack”). Trump’s political celebrity was only reinforced in this moment as his Hollywood celebrity catapulted his words and actions into the importance it required to garner the sitting president’s attention. These actions set Trump up for his platform of hate and fear mongering as he must have noticed the agreement and support of others particularly in the Republican base.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Trump had never experienced ratings or the massive droves of people bombarding their agreement or disagreement with him on social media. The waves of people that flocked to his social media after engaging with Obama only increased his circle of influence and his name awareness (Which is something that a woman on the women in politics panel said was very important. She credited her win to her ability to knock on doors and simply get people to know her name.) so that if he so chose to run, he at least would skipped the step of door to door campaigning.
Celebrity has a way of rallying support around particular causes. Recently, in the news Taylor Swift threw her celebrity weight behind liberal candidates and it was particularly powerful because she had remained silent for so long regarding politics. ‘Swift said she has been has been "reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now’” (Buitrago). Taylor Swift has the ability to influence the entirety of her fan base which is the same power that Donald Trump utilized to get elected into office. The ability to gather so many people around a shared cause is very difficult to do, but when people already adore or idolize you for something, it becomes incredibly simple it seems.
Works Cited
“Barack Obama Mocks Donald Trump at White House Dinner.” BBC News, BBC, 1 May 2011, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13251819.
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
Buitrago, Juan. “Shake It off: Taylor Swift's Political Endorsement Draws Praise, Backlash.” Knoxville News Sentinel, Nashville Tennessean, 8 Oct. 2018, ux.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/10/08/taylor-swift-political-phil-bredesen-endorsement-over-marsha-blackburn-draws-ire-praise/1563331002/.
Before Trump took office in 2016, he was one of the most known celebrities in hollywood. Not only was he known, but he was also known for how his negative role on The Apprentice. I think that his appearance on his show is what shaped his candidacy and presidency. Throughout other presidencies, they were able to balance hollywood and politics, but because Trump came from the background, it is heightened. Now that he is in office, I feel like people are looking at him as still the host of The Apprentice instead of our president. Because of this, he shaped his own presidency because of his reputation. I don’t think he really had control of his reputation before going into the election because he already made such a negatively impactful reputation in hollywood. With this said, Trump did still win if he was liked or not. An article written by BBC stated that “A ratings success on television became a vote-winning success in politics” (Bryant). This shows us that even though he was not liked, he was liked by the ratings which kept his name up in hollywood. I feel like this made people focus more on him to see if he could alter his personality from his show to politics. Another thing about Trump is that he was not really liked before his presidency, I think that is also why his presidency has been so negative. In other words, because he was not liked by other celebrities, they truly made more of a point to bash him to the public in order for the people to see what they see in Trump. Also, Trump joined the election even after the social media came alive. For this reason, I think that he also already came into the presidency in a bad reputation. Overall, Trump was not liked, the other presidents who were involved with celebrities were more liked only because they were not as serious in hollywood as Trump was. If other presidents did have a role like Trump on The Apprentice, I think that Trump would be thought differently by the public and by hollywood.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think that celebrities have a huge role in politics. Through the midterm elections, I have seen so many celebrities posting on social media how they voted and how they are pushing other people to vote. Besides voting, they are also advocating who they want to be in office. A lot of celebrities, such as Taylor Swift, have publicly said who they are voting for. Some people don’t think that this is important, but people really do listen to them. For example, after Taylor Swift posted about who she would be voting for, “155,940 unique visitors came to Vote.org in the 24 hours following” (France). This exactly shows how impactful celebrities can be in the political world. This makes me believe that celebrities feel like they need to advertise voting as if it is their “role.” In my opinion, I think that celebrities telling people to vote is a good thing, but I do not like when they show their opinions. I do not think that any celebrity should have a role in politics where their opinion is shown. Yes, they have such a huge platform, but they really are pushing their views on their fans. For example, Taylor Swift could have switched her fans values by posting her view because she is so powerful in hollywood that her fans do whatever she says. I think that including celebrities in political views only alters other people's views.
As for the impact that celebrities have on politics; they are very impactful. When Kim Kardashian went to meet with President Trump, it was all over the news. Unfortunately, it was in the news in a negative way. Kim went to talk about prison reform while media sources made it into a sexism issue. This shows me that even if celebrities get into politics, it still is solely focused on them. All of the news articles about Kim going to visit Trump talked about entertainment news rather than why Kim was actually there. In my opinion, this shows us how the news works. They care more about the hollywood life than politics. This is easily shown when Trump took office because everything shifted. Everything is still about drama news rather than focusing the news on the issues that truly matter. Overall, I do believe that celebrities are very impactful in politics because they are not afraid to speak out. On the other hand, I think that their messages get lost in their reputations.
DeleteWorks Cited
Bryant, Nick. “Donald Trump and the pop culture presidency.” BBC, 18 January 2018. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency. Accessed 5 November 2018.
France, Lisa Respers. “Voter Registration reportedly spikes after Taylor Swift’s post.” CNN, 9 October 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html. Accessed 5 November 2018.
Kevin G. Slattery
ReplyDeleteProfessor Lisa Burns
Strategic Communication in the Trump Era
5 November 2018
Blog Post # 9
Donald Trump’s Hollywood celebrity status has greatly impacted and shaped his candidacy and presidency. We have seen time and time again that Donald Trump dominates the conversation largely because of his celebrity status. This became no more apparent than when in March of 2018, President Donald Trump tweeted, “Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don’t have stars anymore- except your President (just kidding, of course)! (Bradshaw 1)” There is actually evidence to support President Trump’s claim. The Oscars achieved a viewing audience of 26.5 million viewers, which was a record low and down 20% from the previous Oscars (Bradshaw 1). The president’s tweet garnered a lot of media attention from celebrities and ordinary Americans alike. For example, Oscar and Late Night Host Jimmy Kimmel said in a tweet, “Thanks, lowest rated President in HISTORY (Bradshaw 1).” Jimmy Kimmel was right about Donald Trump’s approval ratings. President Trump’s approval ratings were the lowest level of any modern President in their first term (Bradshaw 1). The attention from celebrities towards Donald Trump’s tweets indicates he has become the center of attention for Hollywood and other media elites. His celebrity on TV and Twitter has led to mostly negative attention toward his presidency.
Today, celebrity has played a major role in American politics. Celebrities help sway American voters to a particular candidate or cause. For example, there was a significant increase in voter registration after Taylor Swift made a call for her fans to register to vote (Respers France 1). Taylor Swift announced she would be supporting Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, who are running for the Senate and House of Representatives (Respers France 1). Taylor Swift had stated that she was reluctant to voice her political positions in the past (Respers France 1). Specifically, Swift said, “I have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country (Respers France 1).” Taylor Swift is a prime example of a celebrity using their status to rally fans who can be potential voters around a candidate or cause. She was able to rally her fan base to support the Democrats from her home state and human rights causes that she believes in.
Celebrities have a huge impact on politics in America. Celebrities can appeal to younger Americans that many politicians simply cannot appeal to. They can also engage with and get Americans who may not be entirely involved in politics to participate. Celebrities can appeal to a wide range of people that politicians cannot always relate to.
Works Cited
Respers France, Lisa. “Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes after Taylor Swift Post.” Cnn.com, CNN, 9 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html.
Bradshaw, Peter. “Celebrity-in-Chief: Is Trump the Only True Star Left?” The Guardian, The Guardian, 9 Mar. 2018, www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/09/is-trump-the-only-true-star-left-celebrity-in-chief-hollywood-oscars.
(Dana Vogt 1/2)
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump’s celebrity status was arguably one of his best assets in his candidacy fro the 2016 Presidential election. Aside from his celebrity status, his other best asset in garnering supporters was his boisterous personality and tendency to express extremist opinions, which may have stemmed from his confidence as a celebrity. This differs from his political celebrity in because his Hollywoodized celebrity status is what birthed his political celebrity status, transforming him into some kind of pseudo politician. Donald Trump has changed the way that Americans view celebrities in office, making the late Senator John McCain’s attack on Obama titled “Celeb” seem almost unfounded in comparison. According to BBC, in 2008 John McCain launched an ad on Obama that claimed Obama was “the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead?” (Bryant). Obama garnered so much fame and notoriety for a variety of reasons on his campaign trail, but he was an accomplished politician before he was a celebrity. Trump’s evolution was in the opposite direction, giving him the title of politician after launching a campaign based on notoriety alone. According to that same article, “The fact that Obama had become a political idol in a pop idol age helped propel him to the White House” (Bryant), which I cannot argue with. However, in my opinion, Obama’s policies gave his name a platform, while Trump’s name gave his policies a platform, and not for the right reasons.
Celebrities have a huge impact on politics in 2018, but I do not think that this is a new phenomenon. It seems like nowadays, celebrities are pressured to take a concrete stance— do they, or do they not, support Donald Trump as president? It is almost a defining feature of a public figure that their fan bases expect them to establish. For example, Taylor Swift has recently come out to publicly support the Democratic ticket in her state of Tennessee (Skinner) while Kanye West, ironically her celebrity adversary since the 2009 VMAs, has chosen quite a different route. Kanye West has publicly endorsed Trump for months now, which is in direct opposition to his general fan base of Blacks, minorities, and those disenfranchised in impoverished areas, such as his hometown of Chicago. This is still an influence in politics, though not a very wise one, because Trump highlighted West as one of his strong points in appealing to minorities. Press photos were staged of West and Trump hugging in the White House, often “discussing policy” and sharing ideas. West has also mentioned a run for president in 2020, then changed that goal to 2024, though I will be interested to see if he even keeps a foot in the door of politics in light of recent statements. Last week, West denounced his support of the Republican party, saying that “My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative !!!” (West). Sorry, Kanye, but we have not forgotten your fervent support of Trump’s policies.
(Dana Vogt 2/2)
ReplyDeleteThere are some positive aspects to the way that Trump’s celebrity has arguably derailed the American presidency. It has undoubtedly opened the eyes of the nation in a way that no celebrity politician has before, even above Al Franken, Ronald Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to a VOX article, “Trump has been a potential negative cue-giver to Democratic voters, pushing them away from positions that he has taken. Perhaps he has persuaded Democrats that they need value political experience more.” (Skinner). If one thing can be taken from this high-impact celebrity turning the nation upside down, it is that voting should be taken very seriously, and the fame of a name on the ballot does not directly translate to quality performance or moral value as a candidate.
Works Cited
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.
Skinner Richard. "Is Trump Making Celebrity Candidates Less Likely?" Vox, 26 Oct. 2018.
Kanye West’s tweet: https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1057382916760707072
Rick Lessard
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump was a celebrity who decided to run for public office. Celebrities running for office is nothing new and the transition is generally seamless. Two prominent examples of celebrities running and winning public office are Al Franken and President Ronald Regan. However, Trump is an exception because of how he made his transition. As Richard Skinner writes in his article, “Reagan and Franken were probably more famous as political commentators than as entertainers by the time they ran.” (Skinner) Donald Trump announcing his candidacy seemed like he one day woke up and decided that it was a good time to run for office, though he had no political experience up to that point. Celebrities that run for public office, generally are past their prime in the spot light as a celebrity. Arnold Schwarzenegger was about 15 years removed from his heyday as a major action star when he decided to run for governor of California.
Almost all the elected celebrities mentioned, ran a traditional campaign on there way to office. Donald Trump took a new approach all together. Nick Byrant of the BBC wrote, “With Trump, politics was entertainment, and his campaign mirrored much of the razzmatazz, hype, aggression and faux controversy of one of his favorite pop culture genres, World Wrestling Federation, which had blurred the lines between sport and show business.” (Bryant) The nicknames he gives to his opponents, is eerily similar to the trash talking segments at wrestling events. One can simply reference Trump’s twitter feed to see what the “storyline” was going to be that day. Trump built this idea through his powerful social media presence along with exploitation of the 24-hour news cycle to gain the massive exposure. It has been referencing in the New York times that Trump mentioned to his political aides to this of each day like and episode of TV.
rick Lessard
DeletePoliticians and celeb status have been becoming more and more blurred in the last ten years. Former President Obama became a pop icon during his presidency through savvy media appearances. Nick Bryant again writes, “Whereas many of his predecessors looked like they had walked onto the wrong set when they ventured into the world of entertainment, Obama made the transition seamlessly. Mimicking Al Green, dancing with Ellen DeGeneres, appearing on The View or driving around the White House grounds cracking jokes with Jerry Seinfeld for the show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee became just as much a part of his presidency as more formal appearances.” In a strange way, this helped establish the idea that presidents need to be as much political engaged as they should socially.
Celebrities like Taylor Swift or Kanye West have both expressed their support for various political parties. Both have had a degree of success. Kanye West isolated a lot of his fans with his use of the MAGA hat along with his controversial and lacking in fact, statements. Swift on the other hand has seemingly rallied thousands to vote in the upcoming election. Lisa Respers France wrote in her CNN article, “Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for the nonprofit Vote.org, told Buzzfeed that numbers had spiked both nationally and in Swift's home state of Tennessee after the singer's post Sunday on Instagram.” Celebrities becoming political are extremely powerful because of their legions of social media followers. Like Swift they can sway people to become more and more involved. Even Kanye has impacted voters by driving them away with his pro-Trump rants.
Works Cited
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency
France, Lisa Respers. "Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes After Taylor Swift Post." CNN, 9 Oct. 2018.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html
Skinner Richard. "Is Trump Making Celebrity Candidates Less Likely?" Vox, 26 Oct. 2018.
https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2018/10/26/18027028/celebrity-candidates-trump
Usually when I do these blogs I often begin the post with some of my personal thoughts before checking the readings posted for the week, but this week I decided to check the readings first, and right off the bat the BBC article opened with something quite interesting. The article mentions how during the 2008 election John McCain ran an ad that tried to make Obama seem unfit to lead the country, pinning him as “the biggest celebrity in the world” (Bryant). However, I’m quite certain that neither McCain or Obama were expecting a celebrity of such size, not a politician run, and win the presidency a mere 8 years later. I would be lying to you if I told you 8 years ago that I could see someone like Donald Trump, the man who runs The Apprentice, be the man who runs the United States of America. McCain pinned Obama’s celebrity status against him as a weakness, but as we saw in the outcome of the 2008 election, it was that popularity, likeability, and mere celebrity status that aided Obama to victory. Fast forward 8 years to the 2016 election, and now we have a true pop culture celebrity in office, and I believe it would be foolish to think that Trump did not see how Obama’s celebrity status aided him in his campaign. As much as I may not agree with everything Trump says and what he stands for, the man brings a presence that almost seems larger than life. While this may be just his persona that he throws on for the public eye, there is no question that if you were to put Trump in a room with just about anyone who is going to run for president in 2020, Trump will dictate that room. Trump has the confidence to do and say what he wants, and perhaps the reason for this is how accustomed he is to being in the spotlight. During the debates between Trump in Clinton, we saw this time and time again where Trump would make sure that the show would go his way.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange to think how different the political climate would be had Hillary won the election, but we can’t dwell on what could have been, we must analyze what is happening now. I am not currently up to date on the whole Kanye and politics idea, but I think that having someone like Trump in office kind of opened Americans up to the idea of having a celebrity in office. Trump is not a politician, and the American people voted him into office, so why can’t it happen again? As of now Kanye stated he is done with politics and wants to focus on being creative, but that does not mean that he is done forever. We have seen West “wearing the red MAGA hat everywhere from appearances on SNL to a meeting with President Donald Trump himself.” (Bach) We have seen Kanye be passionate about politics, and people have gotten behind him in support. It is strange to think of the direction that politics is currently headed, but it is also quite exciting at the same time.
Work Cited
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
“Kanye West Is Quitting Politics to Focus on 'Being Creative'.” Fortune, fortune.com/2018/10/31/kanye-west-quits-politics/.
Blog #9
ReplyDeletePresident Trump was no stranger to the limelight long before his campaign. His celebrity status directly impacted his campaign in the 2016 election, and has continued to do so throughout his first two years as president. When then-celebrity real estate mogul Trump announced his candidacy for president, nearly every news outlet in the world was covering his remarks. His well-known celebrity status allowed for him to receive thousands of hours in free press.
While most “politically famous” people need to have a budget set aside for marketing, Trump did not need to take the same approach with regards to campaigning. As a matter of fact, there was nothing ordinary about Trump’s campaign. Being a prominent celebrity, news outlets covered his words extra close, and in turn, gave Trump a bunch of free air-time. This gave Trump a massive advantage over the other Republican and Democratic candidates with regards to voter exposure.
Trump’s Twitter and other social media platforms had already experienced a lot of traffic prior to the 2016 election, giving him the perfect outlet to reach out to supporters. Once again, providing then-candidate Trump with a large advantage over the other candidates in terms of demographics reached. Having a keen sense of social media appears to be a requirement for any president attempting to take office currently in this culture.
The article entitled, ‘Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency’ by Nick Bryant states, “Trump more than met one of the many requirements of modern-day political success: the ability to entertain.” Bryant’s reasoning for Trump’s victory matches those of analysts across the globe. Having a well-known presence, and the ability to entertain the press will give a candidate continued coverage, and a much greater chance for political success. In the case of President Trump, he kept the eyes of the world on him throughout the campaign. He hasn’t steered too far away from this strategy throughout the first two years of his presidency as well.
Hollywood celebrities have been voicing their opinions recently over the upcoming midterm elections. Most have been encouraging fans to go out and vote in the 2018 midterm elections, but this is not the first time that celebrities voiced their opinions on political matters. Prominent figures in Hollywood do have an impact in politics because they can encourage their supporters to get involved in various charity groups or endorse their favorite candidate. Clearly, they are not the end all with regards to making a final decision on a candidate, but someone’s favorite celebrity can most certainly encourage them to vote one way or the other.
Juan Buitrago of the Nashville Tennessean reported, “It seems nobody expected Taylor Swift to ever get political, and her Sunday night post on the upcoming Tennessee Senate race sent shock waves through social media.” A celebrity’s words can spread quickly, and cause a rapid reaction on social media. Celebrity’s voices are heard louder than the average Joe, and for this reason, makes them valuable to political behavior and operations.
Works Cited
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
Buitrago, Juan. “Shake It off: Taylor Swift's Political Endorsement Draws Praise, Backlash.” Knoxville News Sentinel, Nashville Tennessean, 8 Oct. 2018, ux.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/10/08/taylor-swift-political-phil-bredesen-endorsement-over-marsha-blackburn-draws-ire-praise/1563331002/.
Cali Kees
ReplyDeleteProfessor Burns
Blog Post #9
06, November 2018
Presidents creating a celebrity status has become a normalized practice. However, coming into office with Hollywood celebrity status is not the normal for a President. The only President we can even attempt to compare Trump’s status coming into his campaign for President is Ronald Regan. From the very first few days of his campaign Trump was a house-hold name, giving him an advantage that the other candidates in 2016 did not have. People knew his billion dollar business as well as his harsh personality from the reality show “The Apprentice,” his businessman background and image as being a “Washington outsider” was key in him being elected. Another key quality that is often required to become a political success, according to a BBC article by Nick Bryant is, "the ability to entertain. It mattered not that he had only a limited grasp of policy and world affairs. More important was his talent as a performer,” (Bryant 2).
In the past Presidents have used and have needed the support of comedians, television hosts, etc. to entertain the public and to make politics more exciting. For Trump, things have been different, mostly because he is, “a master-self-publicist,” (Bryant 2). Trump makes politics entertaining and that is because according to Bryant, his campaign mirrored many of the things that go into World Wrestling Federation. "The nicknames, like ‘Little Marco’ and ‘Crooked Hillary’. The stadium rallies. The smackdown one-liners. The merchandising. All that was missing was leotards and body oil,” (Bryant 2). Trump, according to Bryant, even encourages his aids to think of each day he is President, as an episode on a TV show.
Celebrities have always had a key impact on politics, with their followings, many fans will take anything and everything they say to heart. I think most celebrities realize this and they make these political stances because they are well known and can tackle issues that maybe other Americans have wanted to but have felt they do not had the right type of status to do so. Celebrities often become talking heads for different issues in politics.
A prime example of a celebrities impact on politics was when Taylor Swift recently endorsed two Tennessee Democrats and encouraged her fans to vote. Swift did this in an Instagram post and within hours voter registration increased significantly. According to an article, "Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes After Taylor Swift Post,” by Lisa France, Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for the nonprofit Vote.org said that after the Instagram was posted, "We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post,” (France 1). Even a few days after the post, fans were coming out to register to vote in large numbers.
DeleteWorks Cited
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
France, Lisa Respers. “Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes after Taylor Swift Post.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html.
PART ONE Charlotte Gardner
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump’s Hollywood celebrity status was utilized heavily in his campaign, but has revealed itself differently in his presidency. Trump used his celebrity status to his advantage for his candidacy. He began to introduce himself as a candidate who was refreshing amongst his competition since he had not been involved in politics prior to this presidential race. He was painted as a newcomer who could bring new ideas with him to the oval office since he had expertise from jobs and experience outside of politics. Voters really took to this part of his campaign since they believed that his distance from politics would bring a new perspective to solving problems that have plagued the country for years. Also, because he was a celebrity, many Americans already knew of him which gave him a leg up on his competitors since many were only locally known at the beginning of the race, “For 14 seasons of The Apprentice, the billionaire sat in his high-backed leather chair making executive decisions, his awe-struck subordinates acting unquestionably on his every command. For millions of his supporters, it did not require a great leap of imagination to see him doing the same in the Oval Office” (Bryant). Even if Americans weren’t in his favor, at least he was able to build up a mass of exposure from the moment he began running. It also became a sort of trend to support Trump when he first stepped into the political world. Many people began supporting him as a joke and took to social media to write funny tweets or make viral video edits of Trump as he started his campaign trail. I think that this viral fame could have definitely led people to vote for him purely as a laugh. His Hollywood celebrity also allowed people to watch him and get to know his behavior from his reality T.V shows, making him a bit more accessible to people. Now, in his presidency, there have been countless outrageous rumors regarding how Trump lives his life at the White House. Rumors of endless McDonald’s and outlandish requests from his employees have circled around, presumably because of his previous fame.
PART TWO Charlotte Gardner
DeleteHis presidency has been reflected through his many golfing trips, comments about other celebrities and countless Saturday Night Live skits- differing from other presidents that I’ve seen while growing up. Trump’s presidency has been turned into a sort of spectacle that highlights his inadequence and selfishness while being the leader of our country. As far as the relationship between celebrities and politics, the two are intertwining rapidly. Celebrities have begun to take a political stance as the state of our nation is beginning to call for one. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift have caused massive political change with as little action as posting an Instagram, “‘We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post,’ Guthrie said.For comparison's sake, 190,178 new voters were registered via Vote.org nationwide during September and 56,669 in August. Swift suggested people visit the website” (Respers France). Many other celebrities have been trying to inspire action from their fans, most recently during the midterm elections happening this week. Celebrities have also been running for government positions as the stigma around non-political candidates has been broken down since Trump’s election. Cynthia Nixon recently ran for the governor of New York. There have been many rumored celebrities that could potentially run for office such as Kanye West, Oprah and most recently singer Akon. I agree with the mix of Hollywood and politics when it comes to garnering more support for voting and political issues, but when it comes to celebrities running, I feel like this new change isn’t effective. It is taking the spotlight from trained and experienced political figures who have spent most, if not all, of their lives preparing for their political position and lessens the credibility of politics as a whole. It makes politics seem corrupt and not serious enough since actual politicians can’t beat reality T.V stars. I don’t think celebrities should have a place in any government position unless they are well-educated about the government and really have a passion to do good for our country.
Work Cited
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18
Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
France, Lisa Respers. “Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes after Taylor Swift Post.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html.
ReplyDeletePresident Donald Trump’s Hollywood status definitely helped shape his presidency. Before he even announced that he was going to run for president, Trump already had a large following from his base to due to the fact that he was a celebrity. He had his own show, The Apprentice, had appeared on Oprah and Howard Stern’s shows and even was the center of a Comedy Central roast. Between appearing on all of those platforms, he was able to reach so many different people and create tremendous name recognition. Where as Senators and Governors running for office might not have a lot of name recognition or be known across the country, as they would most likely only have a following in their own state, Trump was able to reach Americans all across the country before he even ran for president. A Vox article, written by Richard Skinner, backs up the claim of how much Trump’s name helped him gain the highest office in the land. “His celebrity status clearly helped his presidential campaign, particularly in the Republican nomination season — he enjoyed vastly more media attention than his rivals and began with enviable name recognition (if not favorability).” The same article later goes on to talk about what some people are starting to fear. Is America going to start voting for celebrities instead of members of Congress or Governor’s who have served in the political system and held election office? Skinner says we need not worry. “Why hasn’t a boom in celebrity candidates emerged? Maybe Trump’s rocky time in the White House has discouraged other celebrities. Perhaps the barriers to celebrity candidacies remain too high. Running for office is a lot of work, after all.”
I think that the role of celebrity is so overblown in politics today. While I am a big proponent of any person using their platform to stand up for what they believe is right, like the NFL players and the anthem protests, I think that celebrity’s carry too much weight. For instance, it was great that Taylor Swift encouraged her base to vote and got 65,000 people to register because of it, according to a CNN article written by Lisa France. France later goes on to say that, “For comparison's sake, 190,178 new voters were registered via Vote.org nationwide during September and 56,669 in August. Swift suggested people visit the website.” I also think that it’s great that Swift opened people’s eyes up to issues that candidate’s support that they probably shouldn’t. However, that awareness she raises should only go so far. I don’t think that people should be basing their votes off of who their favorite celebrity is voting for nor do I think that candidates should be courting celebrity endorsements to run for office. Obviously if that is the best strategy that it’s on the people, not the candidates running for office, that lean too heavily on their favorite celebrity’s opinion. However, the political system shouldn’t be such that a celebrity who has never held elected office should be able to influence votes because he or she likes a certain candidate.
I think that celebrities have a medium impact on politics and the outcome of elections. I don’t think that many celebrity endorsements hold too much water, outside of stars like Oprah or Ellen, but that they can definitely influence parts of the democratic process. I think that where celebrities can do the most amount of work is by drawing the public’s attention to issues that might not get that much coverage. For instance, Ashton Kutcher had used his platform and resources to raise awareness for human trafficking and has even testified in front of Congress.
France, Lisa Respers. “Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes after Taylor Swift Post.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html.
Skinner, Richard. “Is Trump Making Celebrity Candidates Less Likely?” Vox, Vox, 26 Oct. 2018, www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2018/10/26/18027028/celebrity-candidates-trump.
Jeffrey Evans
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump’s presidency has been one for the books. In history, we have never had a President like him before. Donald Trump was one of the first celebrities that we saw run for President and actually be serious about it. I believe at first being a celebrity and not the “average” politician honestly made people believe that he had no chance at even getting close to being the head candidate for the Republican party. Many polls that were done to analyze the 2016 election, did not even have Donald Trump in them. Him being a celebrity made people believe that this was a joke and that he couldn’t be serious. However, it also helped him. I believe him being a celebrity was a huge part of why he won. Americans felt that we needed a change and wanted to get rid of the average boring politician. Trump included policies in his speeches but he added a twist to them that we have never really seen before. He excited the people, his rallies did not feel like a regular rallies, they were electrifying and got the people excited. I believe that this is because he was a celebrity, he already knew how to connect to the public and talk publicly. As stated in a BBC article “Last year, the New York Times reported he had advised aides “to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals” (Bryant 2018). This shows that Trump did not look at Presidency the same way that it has been looked for years, instead he looked at it as an episode in a television show which is something that he is used to. Bringing a new aspect into politics, he has been able to change the political world. Now that Trump has become President a lot more celebrities have used their platforms to talk about politics as well. Recently, Taylor Swift has endorsed Gov. Phil Bredesen who is running against Marsha Blackburn. Taylor then continued to say “her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me” (Buitrago 2018). After saying this, Swift received tons of backlash and hate saying “shut up and sing”. This really shows in some aspects that a lot of people do not want celebrities to speak out or be a part of politics. I believe that Donald Trump has influenced many celebrities to voice their own opinions and thoughts however, a lot of people also do not think that they should talk. I believe it’s a great thing that celebrities do speak up and talk about politics because they can reach a lot of people. Celebrities are able to reach people that most political candidates cannot and they can influence millions to vote or stand for something they believe in. As a nation we tend to believe our votes do not matter, but these celebrities are showing people that our votes do matter and it’s important to go out and vote.
Work Cited
Bryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.", 18 January, 2018.
France, Lisa R. "Voter Registration Reportedly Spikes After Taylor Swift Post.", 9 October, 2018.
Buitrago, Juan. "Shake it off: Taylor Swift's Political Endorsement Draws Praise, Backlash." Nashville Tennessean, 8 Oct. 2018.
John McMahon
ReplyDeleteHaving a celebrity status does positively impact on a candidate’s chances for the presidency. From even before Donald Trump, presidents having a pop culture following made it easier for them to appeal to certain voting demographics, and humanized these politicians in areas they would otherwise be unable to. Ronald Reagan was an actor before becoming Governor of California and eventually the president. Bill Clinton played saxophone on MTV, and Trump had the Apprentice. These candidates already had a different following outside of politics that made it easier to persuade voters to vote for them.
One of biggest aspects of being a celebrity running for office is familiarity, in the fact that many voters already know a candidate before their campaign hits the ground running. For someone like Donald Trump, it’s hard to forget the loud mouthed-real estate mogul from his years in the business, his name plastered all over the buildings he owns, and the dynasty that is the Trump family. For Trump, voters saw him as “the billionaire [who] sat in his high-backed leather chair making executive decisions, with his awe-struck subordinates acting unquestionably on his every command”, so it wasn’t very difficult to see the same him in the same situation in the oval office (Bryant, 1). Trump was capable of entertaining and running a business on screen, and this was able to be translated into effective political leadership.
Donald Trump’s unpolished, rough-around-the-edges demeanor landed him in the oval office. For as many fans of Trump as there are, there are also those who vehemently dislike him, many of who are celebrities themselves. Obama was able to swing Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen among other music icons for his inaugural concert, while Trump was only able to get country singers widely known only in the US. Trump is an entertainer for sure, but not in the same fun, lighthearted way President Obama was. During his presidency, Obama was “dancing with Ellen DeGeneres, appearing on The View or driving around the White House grounds cracking jokes with Jerry Seinfeld for the show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”, a little change of pace compared to “The Apprentice” (Bryant, 1). All of these informal appearances by Obama helped widely advance his agenda, especially ObamaCare. The “entertainer” aspect of being a celebrity can definitely be used to help the political side of a celebrity’s agenda, if done correctly.
Celebrities outside of politics also have a resounding impact on the political process and political awareness. Over the past year or so the MeToo movement has been monumental in raising awareness SNL writer and Senator, Al Franken. In addition to this, celebrities like Taylor Swift have been endorsing candidates in Tennessee, urging people to vote. As a result, “more than 160,000 people had done so” (Mzezewa, 1). After it’s all said and done, whether you like it or not, celebrities have an influence both in and outside of politics. Although Hollywood elites may seem out of touch and not worth your time, they have more of an influence than you think.
John McMahon Works Cited
DeleteMzezewa, Tariro. “I Loved Kanye West and Hated Taylor Swift. Then 2018 Happened.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/opinion/kanye-taylor-swift-white-house.html.
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
Sophie Rodgers
ReplyDeleteProfessor Burns
MSS 349-01
6 November, 2018
The issue of celebrity in politics is nothing new. From JFK to Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, America has let Hollywood and Washington mix time and time again. Nevertheless, the nomination of a celebrity businessman and television star to the run for president shocked many. Donald Trump was a star in his own right before taking office- and it seems he’s trying to hold on to that.
I believe that Trump’s celebrity status had two main impacts on his political career. It gave him an edge on the campaign trail against the scores of other Republican candidates, because his was already a household name. Trump didn’t need people getting his image out to the public; his face had already been on TV and in magazines for years. He was easily the most memorable candidate, and therefore was able to gather large crowds and a huge support system that his peers had more difficulty doing. People already had a vested interest in him, and they wanted to see what he would say or do. Many didn’t care that “that he had only a limited grasp of policy and world affairs. More important was his talent as a performer. A ratings success on television became a vote-winning success in politics.” (Bryant). Secondly, I believe that Trump’s celebrity has allowed the public to hold him to a lower than normal standard in office. Many have pointed out that Trump has been able to do or say things that any other president would have faced severe consequences for. I think his image as a celebrity overpowers his image as a politician, and as such people don’t hold him accountable the same way. Trump, of course, is doing nothing to change the way he is perceived. From his dramatic rants on Twitter, to telling aides to think of every day as “an episode in a television show”, to calling his first cabinet meeting “the studio”, it seems he is content to cultivate the idea of a celebrity president (Bryant).
Celebrity endorsement and support of candidates is also nothing new. However, social media has recently allowed stars to do this on an even bigger and more public scale. I believe that celebrities can be beneficial to politics when they use their platform to raise awareness about certain candidates and issues. However, I feel a problem arises when people take a celebrity’s word to heart without figuring out how they themselves feel about the topic. We put celebrities on an elevated platform, which is great for advocacy but not a stand-in for actual political research. Celebrities can have a lot of influence over their fans (particularly younger ones), and some might be inclined to support or even vote for a certain person based on who their favorite star endorses. I think celebrities should express their political views, whatever they are. They’re still citizens like you and me, and deserve to share what they think. But they need to be careful about how they do it. During the 2008 presidential election, Taylor Swift said in an interview that “’I don’t talk about politics because it might influence other people. And I don’t think that I know enough yet in life to be telling people who to vote for.’” (Mzezwa). I agree! Celebrities shouldn’t be telling people who to vote for. They can, however, use their fame to raise awareness about issues and candidates that matter to them.
(part 2)
DeleteUnfortunately, another issue that can arise from celebrity involvement in politics is when the media focuses too much on the celebrity themselves, rather than the issue at hand. Kanye West’s lunch at the White House and his wife’s meeting with the president are two prime examples of this. The media, from news channels to late night talk shows, was filled with coverage of the event- it was all anyone could talk about. But what could have been an opportunity to have a conversation about “manufacturing jobs, criminal justice reform and violence in West’s native Chicago” became a week-long roast of both West and Trump (Scott). The focus shifted entirely off of the issues because of the people involved in it. Similarly, when Kim Kardashian visited the White House to discuss prison sentencing reform, the media responded with crude jokes and cartoons. With headlines like “The Other Big Ass Summit”, and “Kim Thong Un”, the narrative of the story became about Kim and her body, and not the real reason she was there: to argue for the pardon of “Alice Marie Johnson, a great-grandmother who is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a nonviolent, first-time offense.” (Arboleda). Celebrity advocacy can be a double-edged sword: it gets the nation talking, but not always about what they were intended to.
Celebrities can be a tool for political candidates to get the word out, garner support, and inspire individual action. As long as we remember that they are not experts, I think we will be fine.
Works Cited
Arboleda, Cindy. “Kim Kardashian Visits White House to Plead in Behalf of Imprisoned Great-Grandmother; World Reacts with Sexist Jokes.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 31 May 2018, www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/kim-kardashian-visits-white-house-plea-behalf-imprisoned-grandmother-world-reacts-sexist-jokes-192629619.html.
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
Mzezewa, Tariro. “I Loved Kanye West and Hated Taylor Swift. Then 2018 Happened.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/opinion/kanye-taylor-swift-white-house.html.
Scott, Eugene. “The GOP Can't Decide If Celebrities Should Be Ignored or given a Seat at the Table.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Oct. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/09/gop-cant-decide-if-celebrities-should-be-ignored-or-given-seat-table/?utm_term=.c63c7f3aba58.
Part 1: Donald Trump’s celebrity status was a major talking point for people throughout his campaign and it also sparked a discussion about just how involved celebrities should be when it comes to politics. Trump was smart about the ways he used his already established celebrity status to help him and his campaign. He had spent years cultivating just the right connotation around his name. When you say “Trump” you think wealthy, successful, and powerful (Fisher, 2018). I’m from south NJ and Atlantic City is about an hour from where I live. I have distinct memories of my mom and grandmom, who love to go to the casinos, talking about Donald Trump. All I knew about him was that he had this big fancy casino, so I knew he was a very wealthy man even when I was too young to understand what a casino even was. His other major advantage was that he was on celebrity apprentice. The phrase “you’re fired” became synonymous with Trump and being a powerful businessman who did what needed to get done. Both of these things worked to his advantage because going into the campaign, the public already viewed him as powerful and business savvy. Not to mention his opulent and glamorous lifestyle, we all remember the images of his glistening penthouse that was seemingly dripping with gold. He was living the life all Americans see in movies and dream about having at least once in their lives. He represented everything someone wanted to be, wealthy, powerful, or both.
ReplyDeletePart 2: The use of someone’s celebrity status, whether through just trying to influence the electorate to vote a certain way or using it to help your campaign, can be very beneficial in today’s world. Celebrities have such a big platform and following that it would make sense for candidates or certain organizations to use their endorsements and advocacy to help them gain support. Celebrities can have a huge impact on political opinion. Right after Taylor Swift spoke out on who she would be voting for this election, there was a huge spike in online voter registration in Tennessee. Obviously we cannot say for sure if she was the direct cause of it, but it sure is highly coincidental. Some people were angry that Swift spoke out while others praised her for finally using her voice (Buitrago, 2018). It is funny to me because in this situation, and in a lot of situations where celebrities talk about politics, the people were the most upset about her speaking out were the people whose beliefs did not align with Swifts and the people who praised her shared her same beliefs. I haven’t seen anyone complain about celebrities getting involved in politics when it supports them and their beliefs so to me it seems that people just don’t like it when celebrities use their power of influence to go against them. To me personally, I don’t really care if celebrities do or not. I can see both sides on the argument. On one end, celebrities have such a huge platform to be able to make positive change in the country so it seems like it would be a waste to not use that. But on the other hand, sometimes you just want to be able to follow a celebrity online or watch them on TV and not hear about politics. A lot of celebrities are in the entertainment industry and some may turn to the entertainment industry because of the fact that it doesn’t get political, but now that it is, people are losing that sense of separation in their lives. I was happy that Taylor Swift spoke out, and in a way she subtly has for years by being a supporter of feminism, maybe not in the best way but her support was there. Plus, celebrities are people too. Just because a certain amount of people in the country know their name, that doesn’t mean the First Amendment suddenly doesn’t apply.
DeleteWork Cited
Buitrago, J. (2018, October 08). Shake it off: Taylor Swift's political endorsement draws praise, backlash. Retrieved from https://ux.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/10/08/taylor-swift-political-phil-bredesen-endorsement-over-marsha-blackburn-draws-ire-praise/1563331002/
Fisher, M. (2018, June 21). Master of Celebrity - How Trump Uses — and Bashes — the Famous to Boost Himself. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/master-of-celebrity-how-trump-uses--and-bashes--the-famous-to-boost-himself/2018/06/20/fef51c98-6b33-11e8-bf8c-f9e
Having celebrity status in an election gives an enormous advantage when it comes to recognition, influence, and support. Donald Trump has been a big name in the industry for years, his name being on golf courses and hotels across the country. Before there was ever Donald Trump the politician, there was Donald Trump the real estate mogul, Donald Trump the billionaire, Donald Trump the actor, etc. These representations of Donald can be argued to have a massive amount influence and recognition over the years, with Donald Trump having a place in our media and even popular culture over the past decade. His Hollywood celebrity status helped him disassociate himself with political culture and become the “non-politician” that he claims to be. Many of the same scandals and controversy would have ended any normal politicians career during the 2016 election, and yet they have had little effect on Donald Trump. By distancing himself as a politician, he avoided being held to the same standard as many serious political figures by the American people. Political attacks on a non-politician have turned out to be ineffective. From the article, “Donald Trump and the pop culture Presidency” by Nick Bryant, it credits Donald Trump success not entirely on the fact that he was a political outsider, or a perceived businessman, but his ability to entertain. Obama was an entertainer as well, and John McCain even ran political ads that compared him to the likes of Paris Hilton describing him as a celebrity and not a leader. The ability to entertain really increases popularity and energy for your campaign. The 2016 election was entertaining, and was a big spectacle with Donald Trump as the lead role. Celebrity is becoming a larger role in politics, with candidates now focusing on having a strong social media presence and getting lots of positive public exposure. A celebrity’s ability to influence is very powerful, and it is being infused into our political process more and more. Even Donald Trump himself is influenced by celebrities when it comes to certain decisions in the White House. From the Yahoo news article “Kim Kardashian West goes to the White House to talk pardon” by Jill Colvin and Anthony McCartney, Kim Kardashian West went to speak with Donald Trump in May about pardoning Alice Marie Johnson, and Sylvester Stallone had a conversation with him regarding a posthumous pardoning the first black heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson. These are both prominent celebrity figures and have both been able to exert change by speaking with President Donald Trump directly. A direct link between celebrities and the president, from our very own celebrity president. It seems that this may become more and more of the political norm, with our influencers in society becoming very active in government.
ReplyDeleteWorks cited
McCARTNEY, JILL COLVIN and ANTHONY. “Kim Kardashian West Goes to the White House to Talk Pardon.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 31 May 2018, www.yahoo.com/news/kardashian-west-en-route-white-house-172634949--politics.html.
Bryant, Nick. “Culture - Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency.” BBC, BBC, 18 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180117-donald-trump-and-the-pop-culture-presidency.
Using celebrity status to achieve a presidency seems crazy, but it is the precise tactic to use in winning the hearts and minds of Americans. If Bill Clinton playing the sax on TV in the 90s hasn’t made it clear, running for presidency is a popularity contest – it’s why Hillary Clinton was doomed. Obama figured this too, as Nick Bryant writes in the BBC. “Obama made the transition seamlessly. Mimicking Al Green, dancing with Ellen DeGeneres, appearing on The View or driving around the White House grounds cracking jokes with Jerry Seinfeld for the show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee became just as much a part of his presidency as more formal appearances”(Bryant). Trump himself had already been a much more visible and recognized public figure for decades before his race, and was actually known by most Americans in general. The faceless bureaucracy and deceit of politicians had alienated most Americans from politics in general, and at any point, most people couldn’t tell you why they like or dislike a Clinton outside general fanfare or scandal – the stuff populating media worlds that Trump has shown to have mastery of. He was very easily able to turn his platform into a brand – Trump Hotel, Trump Casino, Trump White House, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd while being a dominant brand in the American entertainment industry, he was still able to brand himself as an outsider to it all – the key to win over those who felt disillusioned or uninvolved with politicians we’ve been accustomed to for so long, and ones who have betrayed us. As Nick Bryant writes in BBC, As with Barack Obama, celebrity was not the only reason why Donald Trump won. “His businessman acumen, and his status as a political outsider were key. Both helped make the billionaire a working-class hero. However, Trump more than met one of the main requirements of modern-day political success: the ability to entertain. It mattered not that he had only a limited grasp of policy and world affairs. More important was his talent as a performer. A ratings success on television became a vote-winning success in politics”(Bryant). The news value of this was tremendous, and Donald Trump was lucratively awarded with hours upon days of free press, the same media press that would end up blaming Russian bots spreading “Pepe The Frog” memes on Facebook as the biggest winning factor in Trump’s campaign.
Celebrity has an immense impact on politics in general – there’s a reason we’ve all started hearing this phrase “Influencer” being tossed around in the School of Communications. Celebrities, especially rich ones, all end up joining the same wealthy, elite circles that Obama did after presidency, so why would their level of public influence differ? Celebrities telling people to vote on Tuesday are actually telling people to vote Democrat, with little thought given to the policy implications of doing so – it’s more just pleasing a constituency, and doing the right PR. As Eugene Scott writes in the Washington Post, “A politician genuinely interested in addressing black voters' concerns — including those that they have with the Trump administration — would not have leaned so heavily on the popularity of a rapper to lure black voters, a large number of whom are women over 50(Scott).
Scott, Eugene. "Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey and Why Celebrity Outreach Isn’t a Great Solution for Politicians Who Want to Connect." Washington Post, 1 Nov. 2018.
DeleteBryant, Nick. "Donald Trump and the Pop Culture Presidency." BBC, 18 Jan. 2018.