The role and growth of celebritization in presidential campaign coverage

The thesis covers the growing role of entertainment and celebrity-style news in the domain of hard presidential campaign television news coverage. Having done prior research on such entertainment news outlets as E! News, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, among others, I found that I was seeing the same treatment of celebrities as hard news programs were giving to presidential candidates. In light of this thought, the study covers what has been written about the evolution of presidential campaigns and the integration of celebrity news elements into campaigns. This study also performs a media analysis on the network news programs in order to establish the presence of, what I have called, “celebritized” campaign coverage. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of this study, future improvements, and the broader implications of the results from the media analysis. The literature analysis is split into two chapters of the thesis. The first chapter pertains to the evolution of presidential campaigns. Within this chapter, the two sub-sections are: how the campaigns have changed their presentation and strategy; and how the media has changed its coverage of the campaign. The literature that pertains to the change in campaign strategy recognizes a number of patterns. The foremost, as it pertains to this study, is the growth in image creation and image consciousness. The literature largely cites the Reagan campaigns as the first to fully capitalize on creating a candidate’s image. Reagan’s campaign focused its advertisements on pictures and emotional appeals within a small time frame. Before this time the campaign advertisement focused on policy and where the candidates stood on issues. These advertisements were played out over longer periods of time with an emphasis on minutes rather than seconds. After Reagan, the literature almost universally notes the change in presidential campaigns as being a shift towards personalization and carefully planned social functions and rallies. In terms of supporting my thesis one can see that image creation, public relations, personalization, and planned social functions are all elements that are transferrable to celebrities and how they present themselves. With few exceptions, the literature does not make this connection. In terms of how the media has changed its coverage, the literature largely points at the rise of television as a turning point. With the rise of television came a bombardment of images and the ability to cover aspects of the campaign unseen to that point. From there the literature documents the growing role of video, still-shots, and multimedia in the presentation of the news. In terms of campaign coverage, the television media is noted as increasing its emphasis on scandal, personal story lines, the presentation of the campaign, and the appearance of the candidate. In reviewing the literature on the change in media coverage one finds an emphasis on an increase in soft news, as well as a path that parallels the changes in campaign strategy. The second chapter deals with the effect that celebrity and entertainment news has had on campaigns and campaign coverage. The goal of this portion of the literature review is to lay down characteristics of celebrity coverage. This chapter documents the rise celebrity news and the growing importance of image that corresponds almost directly with the growing emphasis on celebrities. This chapter also offers examples of instances where celebrity-style news and campaigns inadvertently or advertently cross paths. These examples act as foundations for the set of guidelines that I lay out as representative of the celebritization of presidential campaigns. Most of the literature that does connect celebrity to the presidential candidate does so in passing and as an aside from a larger point. Because of this I grew in confidence that the concept of celebritization is one unique to research already completed about campaigns and campaign coverage. The media analysis is the original contribution that my thesis makes to the study of presidential campaigns. In this chapter I offer a series of tenets in which one can code whether or not hard news programs are covering campaigns in a celebrity style. These qualities are based on the literature review and prior research into the properties of celebrity news programs. The qualities are as follows: • Stressing personality traits/image, such as clothing, likability, how they are living their private lives • Who celebrities are hanging out with/ befriending • Where they are hanging out • What talk shows they are on, their upcoming game/album/movie • Showing trailers or previews of said game/album/movie • Personal lives, especially if it involves scandal or affairs • The back story- where they came from, growing up • How they carry themselves- their style and modus operandi • Showing clips of signature lines and catch-phrases • Gossip- what rumors are there on the street about these people • Feuding- who they are not friendly with and what the celebrities are saying about each other’s personal lives and personalities I also use this chapter to clarify the difference between soft news and celebritization. Soft news is a broad category refers to a number of content and presentation strategies associated with all aspects of news programs. These strategies include dramatization, personalization, the influx of images and multimedia, and shorter segments. Soft news also refers to how the news presents the content, no matter the content. Celebritization isolates the individual, specifically presidential campaigns. Celebritization occurs when not only is the news seeking to change the presentation, but the individual is also presenting a crafted image and presentation. Unlike with soft news, the defining and differing feature celebrity-style news coverage offers a considerable give and take between subject and reporting entity. This concept isolates the individual- how that individual presents him/herself and is then presented on television. However celebritization does not exclusively imply an absence of useful policy debate or information. Just as Brad Pitt or Britney Spears can be asked a political question, so too, can candidates be asked an informative question with a celebrity-style interview. The fact is that the context is different. The general rule that I used in governing whether or not there was celebrity-style news involved was to ask myself the question- “Could I substitute Celebrity A for the name John McCain or PR Firm for Campaign and still have a segment or statement that made sense?” The actual analysis studied the transcripts of NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, and CBS Evening News from October 1, 2008 to November 3, 2008. This period allowed me to read over 140,000 words in 245 campaign segments over 86 shows. The study coded for whether or not a broadcast contained any celebrity statements, the number of segments with celebrity statements, the number of segments dedicated entirely to celebrity coverage, the number of celebrity-style words spoken in a segment, and the number segments containing promotional videos. This material was used both in compiling both comparative and summation results. The comparative results were used largely to show that all three programs contained aspects of celebritization. The summation results showed that, based on the aforementioned coding criteria, almost 98% of the broadcasts contained some celebritization. Almost 69% of the campaign segments contained some celebrity-style statement. Almost 16% of the campaign segments were dedicated entirely to celebrity-style coverage. Almost 16% of all campaign segments contained some sort of promotional video. About 20% of words spoken about the campaign were within the context of celebritization. The conclusion covers what these numbers mean in broader terms. I believe that these numbers exemplify the real presence of celebritization. The campaigns and the news media are aware of what is being presented and shown on television. The question remains as to whether or not this is good for the American public and democracy in this country. I find that, although these numbers are significant, these are safe values for hard campaign news coverage. The news media is still responsibly exercising its role in informing the public. The information is just being disseminated in a different manner. If, as the literature suggests, celebritization draws in a larger audience, one cannot be displeased with greater voter participation. Additionally, since celebritization does not imply an absence of substance, the current percentages show that there is still plenty of information within news broadcasts. However, I warn that celebritization is inherently tied to a watered-down form of policy and informative content. Thus, if the percentages grow much higher than this one has to worry about the capacity of television news to maintain its role informing society, and society’s ability to make educated decisions regarding politics (If there major source of information in television news). What that can lead to is an American Idol effect. Everyone at home has some grasp of what singers sound good, but are not experts in the field. When voting on American Idol, the public does so with a little music knowledge, but mostly based on looks, performance, personality, and what other people think. If celebritization grows to the point that there is still general policy knowledge passed on, but overwhelmed in a context of personality, looks, attacks, image-creation, it cannot bode well for American democracy

The role and growth of celebritization in presidential campaign coverage

The thesis covers the growing role of entertainment and celebrity-style news in the domain of hard presidential campaign television news coverage. Having done prior research on such entertainment news outlets as E! News, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, among others, I found that I was seeing the same treatment of celebrities as hard news programs were giving to presidential candidates. In light of this thought, the study covers what has been written about the evolution of presidential campaigns and the integration of celebrity news elements into campaigns. This study also performs a media analysis on the network news programs in order to establish the presence of, what I have called, “celebritized” campaign coverage. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of this study, future improvements, and the broader implications of the results from the media analysis. The literature analysis is split into two chapters of the thesis. The first chapter pertains to the evolution of presidential campaigns. Within this chapter, the two sub-sections are: how the campaigns have changed their presentation and strategy; and how the media has changed its coverage of the campaign. The literature that pertains to the change in campaign strategy recognizes a number of patterns. The foremost, as it pertains to this study, is the growth in image creation and image consciousness. The literature largely cites the Reagan campaigns as the first to fully capitalize on creating a candidate’s image. Reagan’s campaign focused its advertisements on pictures and emotional appeals within a small time frame. Before this time the campaign advertisement focused on policy and where the candidates stood on issues. These advertisements were played out over longer periods of time with an emphasis on minutes rather than seconds. After Reagan, the literature almost universally notes the change in presidential campaigns as being a shift towards personalization and carefully planned social functions and rallies. In terms of supporting my thesis one can see that image creation, public relations, personalization, and planned social functions are all elements that are transferrable to celebrities and how they present themselves. With few exceptions, the literature does not make this connection. In terms of how the media has changed its coverage, the literature largely points at the rise of television as a turning point. With the rise of television came a bombardment of images and the ability to cover aspects of the campaign unseen to that point. From there the literature documents the growing role of video, still-shots, and multimedia in the presentation of the news. In terms of campaign coverage, the television media is noted as increasing its emphasis on scandal, personal story lines, the presentation of the campaign, and the appearance of the candidate. In reviewing the literature on the change in media coverage one finds an emphasis on an increase in soft news, as well as a path that parallels the changes in campaign strategy. The second chapter deals with the effect that celebrity and entertainment news has had on campaigns and campaign coverage. The goal of this portion of the literature review is to lay down characteristics of celebrity coverage. This chapter documents the rise celebrity news and the growing importance of image that corresponds almost directly with the growing emphasis on celebrities. This chapter also offers examples of instances where celebrity-style news and campaigns inadvertently or advertently cross paths. These examples act as foundations for the set of guidelines that I lay out as representative of the celebritization of presidential campaigns. Most of the literature that does connect celebrity to the presidential candidate does so in passing and as an aside from a larger point. Because of this I grew in confidence that the concept of celebritization is one unique to research already completed about campaigns and campaign coverage. The media analysis is the original contribution that my thesis makes to the study of presidential campaigns. In this chapter I offer a series of tenets in which one can code whether or not hard news programs are covering campaigns in a celebrity style. These qualities are based on the literature review and prior research into the properties of celebrity news programs. The qualities are as follows: • Stressing personality traits/image, such as clothing, likability, how they are living their private lives • Who celebrities are hanging out with/ befriending • Where they are hanging out • What talk shows they are on, their upcoming game/album/movie • Showing trailers or previews of said game/album/movie • Personal lives, especially if it involves scandal or affairs • The back story- where they came from, growing up • How they carry themselves- their style and modus operandi • Showing clips of signature lines and catch-phrases • Gossip- what rumors are there on the street about these people • Feuding- who they are not friendly with and what the celebrities are saying about each other’s personal lives and personalities I also use this chapter to clarify the difference between soft news and celebritization. Soft news is a broad category refers to a number of content and presentation strategies associated with all aspects of news programs. These strategies include dramatization, personalization, the influx of images and multimedia, and shorter segments. Soft news also refers to how the news presents the content, no matter the content. Celebritization isolates the individual, specifically presidential campaigns. Celebritization occurs when not only is the news seeking to change the presentation, but the individual is also presenting a crafted image and presentation. Unlike with soft news, the defining and differing feature celebrity-style news coverage offers a considerable give and take between subject and reporting entity. This concept isolates the individual- how that individual presents him/herself and is then presented on television. However celebritization does not exclusively imply an absence of useful policy debate or information. Just as Brad Pitt or Britney Spears can be asked a political question, so too, can candidates be asked an informative question with a celebrity-style interview. The fact is that the context is different. The general rule that I used in governing whether or not there was celebrity-style news involved was to ask myself the question- “Could I substitute Celebrity A for the name John McCain or PR Firm for Campaign and still have a segment or statement that made sense?” The actual analysis studied the transcripts of NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, and CBS Evening News from October 1, 2008 to November 3, 2008. This period allowed me to read over 140,000 words in 245 campaign segments over 86 shows. The study coded for whether or not a broadcast contained any celebrity statements, the number of segments with celebrity statements, the number of segments dedicated entirely to celebrity coverage, the number of celebrity-style words spoken in a segment, and the number segments containing promotional videos. This material was used both in compiling both comparative and summation results. The comparative results were used largely to show that all three programs contained aspects of celebritization. The summation results showed that, based on the aforementioned coding criteria, almost 98% of the broadcasts contained some celebritization. Almost 69% of the campaign segments contained some celebrity-style statement. Almost 16% of the campaign segments were dedicated entirely to celebrity-style coverage. Almost 16% of all campaign segments contained some sort of promotional video. About 20% of words spoken about the campaign were within the context of celebritization. The conclusion covers what these numbers mean in broader terms. I believe that these numbers exemplify the real presence of celebritization. The campaigns and the news media are aware of what is being presented and shown on television. The question remains as to whether or not this is good for the American public and democracy in this country. I find that, although these numbers are significant, these are safe values for hard campaign news coverage. The news media is still responsibly exercising its role in informing the public. The information is just being disseminated in a different manner. If, as the literature suggests, celebritization draws in a larger audience, one cannot be displeased with greater voter participation. Additionally, since celebritization does not imply an absence of substance, the current percentages show that there is still plenty of information within news broadcasts. However, I warn that celebritization is inherently tied to a watered-down form of policy and informative content. Thus, if the percentages grow much higher than this one has to worry about the capacity of television news to maintain its role informing society, and society’s ability to make educated decisions regarding politics (If there major source of information in television news). What that can lead to is an American Idol effect. Everyone at home has some grasp of what singers sound good, but are not experts in the field. When voting on American Idol, the public does so with a little music knowledge, but mostly based on looks, performance, personality, and what other people think. If celebritization grows to the point that there is still general policy knowledge passed on, but overwhelmed in a context of personality, looks, attacks, image-creation, it cannot bode well for American democracy

POWER, INFLUENCE TACTICS, AND INFLUENCE PROCESSES IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

Current studies of power, influence tactics, and influence processes in virtual teams assume that these constructs operate in a similar manner as they do in the face-to- face (FtF) environment. However, the virtual context differs from the FtF environment on a variety of dimensions, such as the availability of status cues. The differences between these contexts may alter how power and influence tactics are expressed in virtual teams. This study examines how power, influence tactics, and influence processes are manifested in virtual teams and which influence tactics are most successful in this context. Twenty-three members of virtual teams were interviewed about their previous attempts to influence team members. The data were coded using a thematic approach. The main findings of the current study were: 1) There is a tendency to use more assertive influence tactics in virtual teams; 2) The success rate of influence tactics varies by the direction of the influence attempt, with lateral influence tactics having the lowest likelihood of success; 3) Specific status characteristics such as knowledge and skills are more relevant for members of virtual teams than diffuse status characteristics; and 4) There is both a relationship orientation and a task orientation in virtual teams. I also present a model for the influence process in virtual teams. First, actors must use technology to get their targets‘ attention. Second, actors should build relationships through getting to know one another and the establishing trust, although this is not a requisite step. Third, actors must choose which influence tactic to use. While many choose to adapt traditional tactics to work in the virtual environment, new influence tactics (e.g., ambiguity reduction techniques) have emerged. Communication technology preferences affect which technologies an actor uses to build relationships and enact influence tactics. The status of the actor and target also affect which influence tactic(s) an actor uses. Recommendations are offered for both low-status members of virtual teams as well as virtual team leaders. Members of virtual teams need to be more assertive in their influence attempts and also need to focus on building relationships with their team members in order to be successful influencers. Future research opportunities are also discussed. Given the growing prevalence of virtual teams, the results of this study are a valuable contribution to both practice and research

Digital mentoring of young people for responsible citizenship: a case study of an organisation using Twitter

This research aims to assess qualitatively a social media strategy employed by a UK-based civil society organisation to mobilise young people to political actions, in particular, voting. Conceptualising democracy as full participation in a decision-making process by members of a society, the project chose the organisation, Bite the Ballot (BtB), which aims to encourage young people to vote. While this research focuses on BtB’s Twitter strategy, it is also concerned with how followers learn the importance of voting through their interaction with BtB. To achieve this, an analytical framework was employed to analyse interactions on Twitter. To triangulate the tweet analysis, the research collected two additional data sources: interviews with key informants and document analysis of BtB’s output including its website. In addition, network analysis was used to contextualise BtB’s strategy within the wider network of youth-led organisations which legitimises the selection of the case for this study. The research revealed some evidence that BtB has employed an effective approach in developing democratic skills for responsible citizenship among young people on Twitter. As the BtB strategy appears to be based on young people’s preference fora horizontal relationship rather than a hierarchical relationship, BtB has adopted a mentoring approach to encourage them to vote after discussion on Twitter. Furthermore, I also found that BtB has developed an unthreatening online environment on Twitter where young people can freely explore and discuss issues with their peers, while BtB acts as their mentor. The analysis of tweets underlines BtB’s approach by suggesting that it allows young people potentially to practise their democratic skills on the BtB Twitter account by posting relevant comments to a discussion topic. Drawing on the above, I conclude that BtB’s strategy constitutes a promising pedagogic approach in guiding young people to develop their democratic skills through interaction on Twitter

The costs of bonding: negotiating personal information disclosure among Millennials and Boomers on Facebook

Since early 2010, Facebook.com, the world’s most popular social network site (SNS), has come under a storm of media criticism over the commercial use of its users’ personal information. Yet even as more became known about the fact that Facebook sells publicly shared information to companies for advertising purposes, two years later the SNS amassed one billion members in October 2012. Based on in-depth interviews 30 Millennials (18 to 32-year olds) and 10 Boomers (48 to 58-year olds) that are daily users of Facebook, this dissertation provides a qualitative analysis of attitudes toward privacy and personal information disclosure on Facebook. What steps—if any—are being taken by users to regulate their personal information disclosure? How do users feel about the website selling their personal information to advertisers? What are the benefits of using Facebook and do they outweigh the risks of having one’s information used for commercial purposes? Or is it even seen as a risk at all? What are the sociological implications of users’ answers to these questions? I challenge prevailing conclusions that the intensity of Facebook use is associated with higher levels of social capital and that Facebook is especially useful for maintaining and building bridging ties to one’s acquaintances. On the contrary, among Millennials in my study, the website is used for maintaining bonding ties between close friends and family members, not bridging ties between acquaintances; that the maintaining of bridging social capital is by comparison merely a passive benefit. As well, while the Boomers in my study use Facebook to maintain bridging ties, maintaining social capital is not a consideration. In arriving at this conclusion, I thematically broke out the benefits of using Facebook as Facebook is my life online, Facebook is my primary connection to others, and Facebook is a convenient communication and information tool. As well, the perceived risks of using Facebook involve a lack of privacy and, to a lesser extent, issues of control. For the Millennials and Boomers in my study, the practical benefits of using Facebook outweigh the perceived risks, and the perception of control on the user’s part is a key factor in rationalizing their ongoing use of the website. As a practical application of my findings, I propose how the marketing research industry might apply these findings toward learning more about consumers

Cyberidentities

This innovative study explores diverse aspects of Canadian and European identity on the information highway and reaches beyond technical issues to confront and explore communication, culture and the culture of communication

The Power of Conferences: stories of serendipity, innovation and driving social change

A chance encounter at a conference sets up a series of unfolding events. In 1982, immunologist Ian Frazer attended his first international gastroenterology conference in Canberra, Australia. After his presentation on genital warts, a colleague, Dr Gabrielle Medley, discussed with him the potential link between the human papillomavirus and cancer. This meeting proved fateful, as it helped to put him on the path that would ultimately lead to the development of the HPV vaccine. This vaccine is now used across the globe, and may eradicate cervical cancer within a generation. This book seeks to explore and understand these long-term outcomes: what we loosely refer to as the ‘long tail’ of conference impact. By doing so, we hope to add to an increasingly complex picture of the value of conferences. For, despite the costs and effort involved in hosting and attending conferences, despite all the online communication options for the circulation of knowledge and commentary, many thousands of events, involving many thousands of people coming together, take place around the world each year. What makes them so worthwhile? How can we plan and design conferences to allow for the full range of potential benefits and outcomes

Early Modern Evil Genius: Hyperconformity and Objectivity in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century English Literature

This dissertation studies the response among early modern and postmodern audiences to the experience of information overload, and suggests that the most appealing response to living in a communications network that appears both systematic and random is to use a rhetoric of struggle that is ambiguous in the same way. \u3eThe reasons for this appeal are twofold: firstly, the rhetoric of struggle is a way to cope with the difficulty of situating oneself within a system of circulating information that operates according to its own arbitrary rules. Mimicking that arbitrariness is a way of finding aesthetic synchronicity between how one\u27s environment articulates itself and how one articulates within it. Secondly, this rhetoric stores the potential for an activism of the object: a method of resistance against any impulse toward order, homogony, totality in a fallen world that, from the early modern perspective, is not worthy of seeing its contradictions resolved. While this resistance is not always positive, it is always clarifying, and while postmoderns may not see the world through a theological prism to the extent that did the early moderns, we share the same desire for resolution, and the same evil genius to counter it