[This has been edited on 11/6/2024 to reflect the election results.]
The Republican sweep was decades in the making, and a win for unbridled capitalism (as seen in the market reaction). What role did the media play, including Roger Ailes and Fox News? Elon Musk who controls the platform X? It’s also important to look at the cumulative advantage given through media exposure to a particular individual, party or agenda. The Apprentice ran fifteen seasons from 2004 to 2017, a time period which coincided with the rise of social media in the mid-2000s and the prioritization of algorithmic feeds in the mid-2010s, further amplifying polarization.
Further read/listen on the relationship of the election result and the media: Jon Stewart Looks Back with Sanity and/or Fear (NYT 11/04/2024)
On Elon Musk: Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars (NYT 7/28/2023), Elon Musk could be the biggest winner of a second Trump Term (NBC News, 11/5/2024)
[Original post, slightly revised and shortened.]
Recently, I found myself inside a Trump Store. I hadn’t seen a Harris store or a Walz Store so I was curious. The walls were entirely covered by Trump merchandise: T-shirts, flags, posters, hats. There was a ballpoint pen of Trump dressed in boxing gear; click a button and his tiny, red-gloved plastic hands would swing tiny punches.
The middle-aged storekeeper was tangling with a rambunctious puppy in the otherwise empty store. We chatted about kids, his dog, the future of higher education in this country. We agreed on the importance of education; his son had recently been accepted to the prestigious UPenn. We spoke of our wishes as parents to provide great opportunities for the next generation.
Fast forward to this week, and I found myself pacing the room and shouting at the screen during that fateful fifth inning of the final World Series game, everyone going wild, celebrating or cursing Aaron Judge’s costly error, yelling and screaming as the Yankees went through an epic, public, nightmare meltdown. Adrenaline pumping, profanities flying. What is it about sports that excites us to this degree? And what was this reminding me of?
The sportification of politics has been much talked about. On my reading list is The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behavior Nationalized. “Dan Hopkins, associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania… explores how politics in the U.S. have largely become a spectator sport. That is, politics have become more nationalized—issues are more likely to be argued and adjudicated at the national rather than local level. This stands at odds with the historical intent of our framers, who envisioned that political power would favor states and municipalities.” [1]
Unlike sports, politics will have a far larger and possibly devastating consequences for all. As a former media professional, I was particularly concerned about exposure to information in today’s networked world: the cumulative advantage given through media exposure to a particular individual, party or agenda. The Apprentice ran fifteen seasons from 2004 to 2017, an inconceivable amount of exposure priming an individual for the candidacy. This time period coincided with the rise of social media in the mid-2000s and the prioritization of algorithmic feeds in the mid-2010s, further amplifying polarized reach and general polarization.
Media exposure, including information shared on social media, favors the rich and the powerful regardless of party affiliation. Media platforms are for-profit, and their gatekeeping works in tandem with technological advances which also favor the rich and powerful. By keeping our eyes glued to the spectator sports of the presidential election, are we missing something important?
This election was a win for runaway capitalism. But we all have the choice to keep working for a better future, together.
[1] French, C. (2022, December 11). Democracy from the Sidelines: How U.S. politics became a spectator sport – behavioral scientist. Behavioral Scientist. https://behavioralscientist.org/democracy-from-the-sidelines-how-u-s-politics-became-a-spectator-sport/