When Celebrity and Political Journalism Collide: Reporting Standards, Entertainment, and the Conundrum of Covering Donald Trump’s 2016 Campaign

Abstract

While the rise of celebrities-turned-politicians has been well documented and theorized, how their bids for office are treated by the establishment press has been less closely examined. Research on celebrity politics on the one hand, and on journalism standards on the other, have rarely been brought into conversation with one another. Here, we draw from both literatures to explore how the press covered Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Prior research on political journalism would likely have predicted that Trump, with his lack of conventional political experience and a career in reality TV, would have been treated to derisive, dismissive press coverage, which we refer to as “clown” coverage. But Trump’s fame and wealth, and the high entertainment value of his campaign, would also lead the media to cover him heavily. We argue that the collision of entertainment-infused politics with traditional journalism practices created a profound dilemma for the press’s ability to cover the campaign coherently, and that the press responded to this dilemma by giving Trump as much clown-like coverage as serious coverage, throughout not just the primary but also the general election. We support our argument through qualitative evidence from interviews with journalists and other political insiders, and quantitative evidence from a content analysis of New York Times and Washington Post coverage of Trump at key points throughout the campaign.

Effects of populism: The agenda of fact-checking agencies to counter European right-wing populist parties

“…Conversely, appeal to emotion was present on tweets with videos (14.5%), which show the importance of emotions for audiovisual contents. This finding is aligned with prior scholarship (Boydstun and Lawrence, 2020).…”

“…In this context, the communication actions of populism are mostly based on propaganda and inaccurate information (Mazzoleni, 2008), which may trigger a disinformation order. Although the US and Trump are mentioned as the main examples because of the political violence incited by this leader (Boydstun and Lawrence, 2020), in Europe, there is also a right-wing populism that use disinformation as strategy (Vasilopoulou, 2018; Pérez-Curiel, 2020). Social media, and particularly Twitter, have played an important role for spreading populist messages (Alonso-Muñoz and Casero-Ripollés, 2018).…”

Digital Threats to Democracy: Comparative Lessons and Possible Remedies

“…Moreover, evidence suggests that the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the long recession that accompanied it, together with the policy responses by most national and international institutions (Hacker and Pierson 2010; Przeworski 2019), gave rise to a backlash against globalization and open societies that boosted the appeal of old and new authoritarian populists that have shown little respect, in words and deeds, for democratic norms and values such as separation of powers, the rule of law, and expertise (Norris and Inglehart 2019). While digital media have often enabled political entrepreneurs of nativist anti-elitism—from Donald Trump in the United States to Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil to Matteo Salvini in Italy—to bypass journalistic mediation to speak directly to their supporters, it is also the case that traditional media greatly contributed to their success (e.g., Boydstun and Lawrence 2020; Wells et al 2016). In sum, while politics is constantly fraught with conflicts and challenges—arguably, they are politics’ very essence—the cleavages that have emerged in the present configuration of digital politics may be more complex, and more threatening to the democratic project, than in the recent past.…”

Analysis of Electability, Capacity, Campaign Resources on the Chances of Elected Public Officials in the General Election Democracy Party

“…In the context of modern democratic societies, the success of political candidates in general elections hinges upon a complex interplay of various factors that encompass their electability, capacity, and campaign resources (Kitschelt & Wilkinson, 2007) (Boydstun & Lawrence, 2020) (Cowell-Meyers, 2014) (Johnson, 2018) (Taylor, 2021) (Patch, 2019). As the Democracy party seeks to secure representation in the public offices, it becomes imperative to comprehend the nuanced dynamics that shape the electoral outcomes (Gastil, 2000).…”