Trump’s Media War (eBook)

Catherine Happer is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Glasgow, UK, and a member of the Glasgow Media Group.Andrew Hoskins is Interdisciplinary Research Professor in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK.William Merrin is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Swansea University, UK.     

Preface 5
Contents 8
Notes on Contributors 11
Part I: Killing the Media 16
Chapter 1: Weaponizing Reality: An Introduction to Trump’s War on the Media 17
Chapter 2: Trump and the Press: A Murder-Suicide Pact 37
Part II: Fake News 44
Chapter 3: Turning the Tables: How Trump Turned Fake News from a Weapon of Deception to a Weapon of Mass Destruction of Legitimate News 45
The Roll-Out: Fake News Rears Its Ugly Head 46
Turning the Tables: The Claim that Legitimate Media Traffic in Fake News 46
Storming the Barricades of Truth 48
What Can Be Done About These Assaults? 49
What Should Not Be Done to Stop Fake News? 50
Where We Go from Here 52
The Unintended Bounce 54
References 55
Chapter 4: Trump’s War Against the Media, Fake News, and (A)Social Media 59
Donald Trump and the Politics of the Spectacle 60
The Apprentice, Twitter, and the Summer of Trump 61
Twitter, (A)Social Media, and Trump 63
The Trump Presidency, Fake News, and the War Against the Media 65
The Trump Administration, Russia, and the Media War over the Trump Presidency 68
Concluding Comments: Trump, Russia, and the Media 71
References 77
Chapter 5: The War of Images in the Age of Trump 80
Misappropriated Photographs 83
Manipulated Photographs 85
The Photo-Opportunity 87
The Inopportune Photograph 88
The Action Shot 90
Conclusion 91
References 93
Part III: Reporting Trump: Building the Brand 96
Chapter 6: ‘Authentic’ Men and ‘Angry’ Women: Trump, Reality Television, and Gendered Constructions of Business and Politics 97
References 107
Chapter 7: Covering Trump: Reflections from the Campaign Trail and the Challenge for Journalism 110
Fear and Disinformation on the Campaign Trail 112
A Media Problem Bigger than Trump 117
Conclusion 119
References 120
Chapter 8: The Scottish Provenance of Trump’s Approach to the Media 122
Introduction 122
Background 123
Alex Salmond After 2011 124
The Referendum and After 129
A Shared Approach 131
Conclusion 133
References 134
Part IV: The Politics of Performance 136
Chapter 9: The Donald: Media, Celebrity, Authenticity, and Accountability 137
Introduction 137
Media, Political Celebrity, and Trump 138
Trump As Celebrity Politician 140
The 2007 Crash and the Rise of Populism 141
The Deflation in the Value Popularly Accorded to Knowledge 142
The Recasting of Sincerity and Authenticity 144
Social Media and the Democratisation of Communication 145
Trump and Accountability 146
Conclusion 147
References 147
Chapter 10: The Big Standoff: Trump’s Handshakes and the Limits of News Values 150
Why Analyse Diplomatic Handshakes As Standoffs? 153
Lesson One: News Values Lead Media to Amplify Handshakes into Geostrategic Moments 155
Lesson Two: The Global Digital Gesture Is Possible 156
Lesson Three: News Media Can Contain These Standoffs, but Not Entirely 158
Conclusion: The Big Standoff 161
References 162
Chapter 11: “Classic Theatre” as Media Against Trump: Imagining Chekhov 165
“Classic Theatre” As Genre: Mediatized Shakespeare in the Park 166
Chekhov in the War Against Trump: Carnival, Song, and Political Aesthetics 168
Historicizing Chekhov: Online Reviews 172
The STC Three Sisters: De-historicizing Chekhov 176
Chekhov and Hope 179
Conclusion 183
References 185
Chapter 12: Trump and Satire: America’s Carnivalesque President and His War on Television Comedians 188
Introduction: Trump’s “Carnivalesque” War 188
Trump As “Grotesque”: Before He Was President 192
President Trump: “Childlike and Naïve” 194
President Trump: “Camp” and “Ridiculous” 195
“Legitimate” Political Comedy: Sophisticated Attacks 197
Conclusion 198
References 199
Part V: Media Out of the Margins 203
Chapter 13: President Troll: Trump, 4Chan and Memetic Warfare 204
Trolling and Politics 204
4Chan and ‘The Great Meme War’ 207
Trump and Trolling 214
‘Apply Cold Water to Burned Area’ 222
References 225
Chapter 14: Trump, the First Facebook President: Why Politicians Need Our Data Too 230
Hyper-personalisation: Just Good Enough 232
Big Data Politics 234
References 240
Chapter 15: Trump’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East: Conspiratorialism in the Arab Media Sphere 244
Introduction 244
Conspiracy Theory and Political Uncertainty in the Information Age 245
Trump’s Foreign Policy Before and After the Election: Political Uncertainty Rising in the Middle East 247
Four Media Events Covering Trump’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East 249
Media Framing and Readers’ Comments 253
Trump’s Election 253
Immigration Ban 254
The Bombing of the Pro-Assad Military Airbase 255
The Riyadh Summit Speech 256
Conclusion 257
References 258
News Sources 258
Index 260