As of today, polls show that Donald Trump leads all Republican candidates with 27% of the vote, followed closely by Ben Carson at 23%. If you were to watch conventional news channels such as Fox, CNN, or MSNBC, or read any daily newspapers such as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, you might think that those poll numbers were made up. It seems like every week, there is a headline or a segment called "Did Trump Go Too Far This Time?", or "Another Trump Crisis?". However, Donald Trump's sustained success atop the polls is a result of manipulating both the old and new media in ways that appeal to certain groups of the population.
Normally, when politicians interact with old media, such as giving an interview for a newspaper or on one of many political television shows, or a televised debate, it is a chance to appear polished, well thought out, and present a clear and concise vision for the future. Instead, Trump almost always appears brash and bold, speaking what comes to his mind without putting what he says through a filter. He even stated he didn't prepare at all for the first republican debate, televised across the country. Compared to other politicians who can appear robotic, Trump seems more like a real person, or your crazy uncle at Thanksgiving depending on who you ask, but for some voters who are fed up with politicians, it's a refreshing change. Politicians in the past have appeared old media as edited versions of themselves, sticking to a script and talking points. Trump has clearly broken the mold, and for Americans who are fed up with robotic politicians, he has become a beacon of change in the American political atmosphere.
For instance, in his presidential announcement speech, which in theory, should be very polished and without inflammatory comments, Trump took serious heat for claiming that the Mexican government was deliberately sending its criminals to the U.S., and he even added that they are rapists and drug dealers(Link). While it is true that crime and drugs do cross the U.S. Mexican border, whether those people are staying in American is unknown, and the idea the Mexican government is deliberately sending these people across the country is ludicrous. Clearly, this comment resonated with voters who feel border security is a big deal. In addition, Trump used his announcement speech to present his agenda of immigration and border security reform to the country.
In terms of new media, Trump has both a facebook and twitter page, with his twitter being the most active and controversial. Twitter is currently the best way for the largest amount of people to interact and share ideas as quickly as possible, and politics is no exception. Trump has for the most part been the only presidential candidate to claim personal responsibilities for their twitter account as opposed to a social media manager. As with his use of old media, Trump's twitter page has drawn criticism as well.
After the first Fox News debate, in which one of the moderators Megyn Kelly confronted Trump, he began a sort of twitter war with her. This war culminated in Donald Trump retweeting someone else's tweet calling Kelly a "bimbo"(Link). Although Trump did not say that himself, a retweet general means either an endorsement or some sort of validation of what the tweet says. Obviously, this drew serious criticism from both political parties. But, just as Trump's comments on Mexicans resonated with certain voters, his twitter feud with Megyn Kelly drew support from a surprising number of people.
On both old and new media, Trump continues to say or do things that conventionally seem like serious blows to his campaign. However, not only does Trump not dip in the polls after these blunders, up until recently he had been soaring and soaring. This is due to his expert manipulation of old and new media. Trump understands there is a certain part of the republican party that feels their party is not conservative enough for them, and Trump has found a way to engage and inspire these voters through old and new media.
Graham, this blog has solid organization. You show how Trump used old media and then succinctly moved to new media sources without rambling. I also liked your statistic in the introduction, and I wasn't even previously aware that Trump was doing so well in the polls so that was a good fact to include to supplement your position. My recommendation to you would just be to include maybe some more facts/quotes just to back up your argument from another article or source, or even to address a potential counterargument.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog post, and I really think your line of argument is solid. I would be really interested to see if there is any empirical data on the level of discussion the media has had about trump, the number of interviews he has had in recent weeks, and how much air time discussion of his campaign has gotten compared to other candidates. Additionally, I think it would be interesting to see if there is some sort of breakdown available of those who do support Mr. Trump's candidacy, where these folks are from, what they like about him, and why they wish to support and continue supporting them.
ReplyDeleteThis is a well-written post with an accessible tone and you do a good job of engaging with current events. I would encourage you to revise to make the media angle of the post a bigger part of the content from the very start - when you discuss Trump's campaign style, or controversial comments, you perhaps might identify what these look like when filtered through the media, whether negative news coverage of such statements seemingly has any impact on Trump's support, why or why not, etc. You also might elaborate on why, in the final paragraph, you think that Trump has "expertly manipulated" old and new media -- examples? The fact that he is actually controlling his Twitter account is one good example - why do you think this is beneficial to him? You will also want to include links to evidence and related information, and some visuals would be good as well.
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