Hi everyone. So this lecture I wanted to look at or I wanted for us to look at and think about how celebrity and media and politics relate to one another and just how increasingly important celebrity and management of celebrity um has become or have become to the conduct of politics particularly electoral politics. Um and certainly that will be my focus and I'll be looking specifically at how politicians have had to uh adjust and accommodate themselves to the reality of both representing themselves as well as being represented or depicted as celebrities. Um but you know I don't I think much of what we say here what I say here about how polit like official electoral um politics in liberal democracies like Canada in the US have been changed by um celebrity and or um ever evolving relationship with celebrity can be extended to other kinds of politics um you grassroots activism um um among other things. Um, I think more generally speaking, um, as David Marshall puts it in this quote that I pulled here, we're seeing the migration of strategies from the entertainment industry in public relations into the organization of the spectacle of politics. And that's sort of going to be the running or or or key theme of this particular um lecture. how increasingly there is a kind of symmetry or affinity or or similarities between celebrities and famous people from the worlds of movies and and television and uh and sports on the one hand uh and the way that politicians um and our relationship with politicians and political parties um are are framed. um we are increasing, you know, we increasingly comport or conduct ourselves in relation to our elected representatives uh like fans of um our favorite movie stars or pop music uh entertainers. Um and that's a pretty significant development I I think that merits closer scrutiny and attention. Celebrity has become increasingly important to our overall popular culture. Um I mean for most of the 20th century um celebrity um you know the experience as well as the condition of being famous was largely confined or limited to the movie, television, music as well as um professional sports industries. Um you know you kind of had to belong to you know one of those sectors or one of those industries. you had to be in the business of entertainment in order to be famous or to be relatively famous. Um, and being interested in celebrities, like being someone who knew who was dating who or this scandals or rumors that were dogging a particular movie star or rock star or whatever, you know, that that was sort of um relegated or pushed to the margins of popular culture. Uh, and like what I mean is you had to be the kind of person who might buy or subscribe to a tablet um like I don't know the equivalent of like um US Weekly today or I mean maybe even trashier than that like National Inquir or whatever. Um but yeah, I mean you had to be some you kind of had to go out of your way um as a Dennis and as a member of popular culture to concern yourself um with the the lives of famous people. Um so you it required some acquaintance or familiarity with tabloids and trade or fan publications like maybe even entertainment news programs or television you know e-weekly you know the entertainment tonights um etc etc um you know being concerned with the lives of of stars was principally considered um pretty trivial um superficial somewhat pointless like why would Do you care about who Jack Nicholson is dating or or the love triangle between um X Y and Zed um you know pop stars and and and so on and so forth. So I mean some of that casual dismissal or cond dismissal or condescension towards knowledge of celebrities and um was kind of gendered to a significant like a considerable extent. Um celebrity news and gossip were deemed the provenence of women. Uh I think again with a an emphasis on the kind of disparaging um depiction you know I mean this was you know that that representation or that association of celebrity news with women's knowledge was was certainly intended to be disparaging um and dismissive. Whereas today, and this is not to suggest that uh we've that that those gendered connotations have been completely overcome or superseded um but today knowledge of celebrities and celebrity culture is pretty mainstream. um you know you don't have to be following TMZ to see and know um you know about X Y and Zed star movie you know movie star television star pop star beefs between you know artists like Kendrick Drake drama or whatever um you know divorces like the the latest um uh you know latest in the divorce proceedings of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie or whatever like you know that is not is no longer limited simply to the the pages or the back pages of of tabloids and and movie trade publications. They're very much at the center of our popular culture and entertainment and especially on social media. I mean there's a case or argument to be made that social media platforms and applications like Instagram and Twitter/X um and Tik Tok have contributed immensely to the kind of mainstreaming of celebrity and interested in celebrity. Celebrities are freaking everywhere, especially on social media where they've you know where your fa you know Chappelle Rowan or or um you know Taylor Swift or or whoever um you know Charlie XCS you know whoever your favorite artists or performers are you know you know movie stars and actors and Dharmas I you know I'm just randomly throwing out names of of people I may or may not be following. I mean the point is they you know they have the biggest accounts they're they images and news about them flood our social media feeds. Um so like you know whereas before you had to be you had to go to a grocery store, you had to go to a convenience store to hunt down a copy of US Weekly or or TV Guide or whatever to read about um XY and Zed's movie star. You to read about Harrison Ford in his next action picture or whatever. today. I mean, if you're on Twitter, if you're on Instagram, if you're on Tik Tok, if you're on Facebook, you can't help be confronted with news and information um and knowledge about celebrities. They are everywhere in every industry. Um now, celebrities may be around more or maybe more visible and ubiquitous than ever be ever before. um they uh famous people have always existed but they have not existed in the form that they exist today as Leo Browy puts it in this quote that I've reproduced here in the last 100 years so over the course of the 20th century in the beginning of the 21st century the nature of fame has changed more decisively and more quickly than it has for the previous 2000 there has always been fame there have always been famous people. Um, in ancient and medieval times, kings and queens and emperors and religious and milit military leaders would all be famous. They would be well known for their accomplishments or for their titles or positions. Um, so there have always been famous people. There have not always been celebrities. um you know the the well-knownness of Alexander the Great or Genghask Khan or St. Augustine, you know, whoever you want to kind of insert any of, you know, King Henry, yada yada, you know, Queen Victoria, whatever. Um, they their well-knownness or their fame um didn't um wasn't a function uh or or sorry, their their power and privileges, their positions in the social hierarchy or order weren't dependent upon their well-knownness, weren't weren't dependent upon their fame. um as we'll see you know that is you very different from um celebrities who only um are only capable of accessing wealth and privileges and and opportunities that are denied to or inaccessible to the rest of us precisely because they are wellknown right Alexander the great was you know the leader was a leader or Genghask Khan was a you know a leader or or whoever you know you can kind of list insert or parachute in your your sovereign of choice here um because of their office and their position not because of they were of their fame. They became famous um um due to the accomplishments that they were able to achieve in their positions in their role roles of leadership. Um and most importantly famous people for a good part of human history were relatively invisible. they weren't seen um you know they weren't known sorry not known or they weren't seen or visible to those below them in the social order um and they were relatively for the most part remote in inaccessible to their subordinates if you were a medieval peasant in France you might know who Prince Phipe was like you'd know the name you'd know they were the sovereign of your of your land um you know they were the person who you were ostensively giving tax, you know, you give handing over your tithe to or whatever or paying a tribute to. Um, but you didn't know what they look like. You didn't, you know, there's no photography, there's no television, and there's no there's not even freaking there are no newspapers. You there, you know, this this sovereign, this monarch is simply a name that you know. Um but that that figure who who dominates or presides over you was would be completely irre or less inscrutable to you when someone who you rarely saw or heard from um so long as they remained at the top. Um as Neil Gabler uh puts it here, fame was less likely to be sought than imposed as a consequence um of accomplishment or office. In effect, it was a mantle one wore, not something one chased. And so, you became famous because you were the king or the queen or the leader of the Mongols or, you know, the pope of the Roman Catholic Church or whatever. Um, um, you didn't you couldn't become any of those positions just because you were famous. Um, you couldn't become president of the United States because you were a celebrity or or well were a famous person. um you were I mean there's no president of the United States at point point in time but you know you were the leader of a land right you were the sovereign or the the highest ranking figure in a in a religion um and then you were well known as a result of that so it wasn't you know fame wasn't something that an individual could acquire independent and apart from their a specific position military or worldly conquest or or accomplishment Um, you know, being a celebrity is very different from being a famous person in this respect. To be a celebrity means to be constantly visible to the public. And that of course only became possible relatively late in the 20th century or like I mean not late in the 20th century, let's say, you know, by the the middle of the 20th century onwards. Um when mass communications technologies like print which obviously predates the 20th century but you know broadcasting, radio, um television among other things and of course the internet um you became mainstays of the overall um e you know cultural uh ethos and order. Um, so you know the to to be visible to the public um for everyone to know what you were doing or who you are or who you were dating or or um and every or even like trivial and details about you like your allergies um your your romantic and and professional history etc etc. That only became possible um with the advent and rise of mass media. And today, of course, celebrity absolutely is something that many people, not just those in Hollywood or the entertainment industries, can chase um can acquire precisely because it does grant them access to all kinds of economic and social and cultural and other kind of privileges and entitlements. Um and whereas again before you were a a powerful and privileged person that made you famous today, being famous can make you a very powerful and privileged person. Um hence the the the rat race or the scramble on on many people's parts today to become insta famous, right? To become um to to get their little, you know, 10 or 15 minutes of fame sessy because um you if you're the hop to a girl or whoever, right? because precisely because it it gives you um access to all kinds of opportunities simply in virtue of your visibility. So celebrity is not the same thing as fame. So of course the question then imposes itself upon us. What does this all have to do with politics? Um and I think the what I want to table here as a possibility um for us to consider is how celebrity has become married to the practice of politics in both its official like institutionalized forms as well as on the broader sense of the of the term politics. you know, obviously politics is strictly speaking more than just elections and political parties um and much else besides um but certainly the way that elections um are covered. I mean, even think about the the way that the in the US, for example, right now um with the presidential election looming um and the the runup to the collision course between um the incumbent Joe Biden um and the presumptive nominee, I guess, like he's officially been um selected as nominee for the Republicans, uh former President Donald Trump. like how that coverage resembles um the way that celebrities are covered uh and reported on. Like the way that journalism and reporting on elections often frames a relationship between representatives and um the their citizens as similar to the relationship between performers and their fans. And therefore even the style of coverage as we'll see um it resembles or more closely emulates um the kind of journalism that we more more um closely associate um with reportage of of entertainers and movie stars and television stars and and pop music stars. So, I mean like even like think about how frequently and commonly we hear politicians dis especially like upandcomers and like or mavericks within a political party like it's rock stars um who have like adoring fans fetting and fawning them wherever they go or how often you hear about campaigns having sellout events or standing room only rallies or or or dinners or or fundraisers or whatever. Um so like even the discourse of language um increasingly overlaps between celebrity culture and political culture again in a pretty narrow or strict kind of sense. And you know the recurrence of these sorts of stereotypes and tropes of the of the politician as a celebrity or as the object of celebrity is someone who is famous, who has fans and who is um um you know the press and the media doting um upon them underscores how celebrity which was produced by Hollywood and the entertainment industry in the 20th century can now be adopted by and extended to political figures. Um, in the past the term celebrity politics might have been a contradiction in terms or a, you know, kind of an oxymoron and politics was might perhaps before the 20th century understood to be serious stuff. Celebrity inherently trivial and superficial and and and kind of pointless. But now like celebrity there's nothing oxymoronic about the term or the idea of celebrity politics. They go together very much like a hand and glove. As Lancet and Cormack put in this quote that I pulled here, celebrity now perades politics in many forms from celebrity comedy commentary and public issues to celebrity diplomacy and activism and celebrity political endorsement of candidates and parties. So celebrity and politics um or celebrity politics is is an inelectable reality of uh of our world today. Um I think as a way to kind of wrap our heads around what has happened to celebrity and how it is um how these developments are transforming politics uh I'm going to introduce a a couple of concepts. Uh so the first is what is commonly described as celebrification which refers to how um ordinary people in our contemporary celebrity culture are increasingly being transformed into or recruited as celebrities as well as how celebrities are figured and depicted increasingly as ordinary people are made more kind of ordinary and relatable. um thanks largely to as we as I'm going to suggest social media uh and the the so-called web 2.0 and the rise of the participatory interactive web. So whereas before the entertainment industry and journalism um or you maybe the pro sports industries um were responsible for kind of gatekeeping who gets to be famous, who gets to be a big movie star, who gets to be a TV star, a model. um pop, entertainer, musician, etc., etc. Now social media, the internet and digital technologies have helped to democratize celebrities so that no longer is it just famous people who've be you know become movie stars or become pro basketball or baseball or hockey players but now totally nonfamous otherwise unremarkable individuals are cap capable or or able to experience and kind of reclaim for themselves the power and capital um and pleasures and and powers of you of pleasures and privileges um that we associate with with fame and with celebrity. So a kind of what is sometimes described as micro celebrity uh where ordinary people anyone who has a Instagram account or anyone who has a Tik Tok account or anyone who has a Twitter account um experiences being famous or maybe not famous but being instamous cha I guess the way we would put it today is you know the colloquially is the the pursuit of or or chasing of clout right if you chase clout you are kind of seeking micro celebrity you're looking to be famous with a smaller number of people you largely online. A micro celebrity allows or compels I mean you can determine or or kind of decide for yourself whether you think it's you know uh valitional or voluntary on the part of the masses or whether we're being forced and and and compelled to do this. But individuals now create and perform uh self-conscious personas or identities online for public attention either textually, you know, like a particular kind of style of tweeting you maybe sharing funny jokes or messages on Twitterx or on Reddit having the highest rated or um voted up uh uh uh post in a subreddit um um or visually, you know, sharing, you know, selfies or on Instagram or reals or or other kinds of short form video on Tik Tok or YouTube or or elsewhere that go viral and make the the creator or the person who shared it momentarily nominally famous or Insta famous as we would uh somewhat colloally describe it. Um, so that you know every one of us like if you've again you don't necessarily have to have gone viral or or been you know become a a big deal or whatever but you know if you've gotten as many as like 10 to 20 to 30 likes or favorites on a particular post on Twitter or on Instagram or Facebook then you've experienced micro celebrity um where you you feel like uh you know you you put some part of yourself out there um and fared or or recruited or attracted attention And that kind of provided you endorphins and a shot of pleasure and enjoyment and and potentially other kinds of um entitlements where you know you treat your um audience if you want to call them that not as your friends or your family or your co-workers but almost like analogous to how an legitimately famous person would treat their fans and followers. like you assume on Instagram or Snapchat or Tik Tok that the people following you who may very well be people from your you know actual life um would have some interest in would care about how you're spending your weekend or where what you're doing while you're on vacation or what you're having for lunch or brunch. I mean, yes, people do care about those kinds of things that usually in respect of famous people. People do care what Margot Robbie is having, you know, where she's spending her afternoon or or people care about uh like home crew showing up to Wimbledon or or whatever. Um um but you now like we are, you know, kind of put ourselves in the position of these more recognizably famous people and therefore experience this kind of micro celebrity. So micro celebrity is sometimes used as a noun like as a way to to name certain kinds of celebrities and certainly it can do that you can describe people like Mr. Beast or or Kais or whoever as micro celebrities you know um precisely because they become famous on via social media. Um, but I think it it it's also used it and can also be used to describe and name a practice something that you don't necessarily have to be an influencer or a streamer um to have experienced micro celebrity. You know, to the extent that you share with the public, whoever that public might be, however small a slice of the actual real public that might be, you have experienced micro celebrity. Uh, you know, social media encourage us to, you know, become intimate to a certain extent with our public, with the people who are following us, to document our private lives, our personal lives for them, to share every toddy detail, every passing thought, every funny joke, every anecdote or any and every anecdote um that occurs to us um with the people who are following us that that is micro celebrity. So, just to be clear, you know, micro celebrity isn't the same thing as subcultural celebrity um or you know, the term is sometimes used by scholars of celebrity um you know, subcultural celebrity that is um to name and describe famous people who are locally known or known with a kind of a smaller or more limited demographic. But again, largely through traditional media channels like a local sports broadcast, you know, lo like a local news anchor or or personality like the host of Breakfast Television on CB24 or whatever that only people in the greater Toronto Hamilton area might know or whatever. Um versus um or you know like or a niche p like a f someone who's famous in a specific like sector or industry that only like hardcore or diehard fans would know. Like I mean if you follow the NBA and ESPN and are familiar with you know the personalities um that ESPN employs in order to cover NBA basketball then you might know who Doris Burke is. One of their um you know one of their broadcasters but again like not she's not exactly a household name. Same thing with like you know if you know anything about the video game industry or the history of Nintendo then like Shigaru Miiamoto would be a big deal but again like not like a household name. It's not like someone you would know um um who would who would be famous and you know these are people who are locally or or like locally famous or sectionally famous u but you know they're famous largely again through traditional means um or traditional media channels television radio etc etc whereas you know there are lots of people you know there are lots of famous people that or like relatively famous people who that lots of us don't know like you know in the same way that Um, some of you might not know who Doris Burke is. Like some other people might not know who like I don't know Charlie D'Amelio or like any of the D'Amelios or Addison Ray or like you know KB Lame or like any of these like big Tik Tockers who become like more traditional celebrities like I'm sure like my you know none of my parents would know who these people are. Um, but the the difference is that the Demilios or KB lame or Kaisen or or Pokemon or Hassan or you know like you know name your you pick your streamer or Tik Tok personality or YouTuber. Um you know these are all figures who have become quote unquote famous through social media and digital technologies. um and you know they haven't had to go through the traditional channels of the entertainment industry or professional sports or other entertainment industries rather they've been able to kind of kind of take the reigns for themselves um and become famous through their own efforts through their own means or like relatively famous again like I you know Kaiser and Mr. These are huge of course at this point but you I I would wager that they're not quite household names and know there are lots of people who especially older folks who you might have no idea who either of these two individuals are. Um so the other major concept that I want to introduce here is that of celebrization. So what celebrization names or what the concept of celebrization captures is the way that um traditional celebrity the kind of being the the state of being famous made possible by traditional media like television and radio and and film um you know and other forms of broadcasting has also undergone change. So it's not just that we have micro celebrity which has allowed um ordinary people to become famous as well I should say famous people to become ordinary to kind of show us every little aspect of their lives and to kind of make themselves relatable um but also um we've seen this kind of celebrization which makes it possible um for you trai for new and different kinds of celebrity or ways of being famous um via traditional media. Um so I'm going to kind of describe these as democratization, diversification and migration. And you know really does date to around the um you know these um trends towards celebrization or or developments in celebrization date to around the advent of reality television in the '9s and 2000s at the end of the 20th century when all of a sudden you have like ordinary people flooding the television set um where like or the television screen where you have as contestants or participants on programs like Survivor or Big Brother like Bachel the Bachelor um you know and countless the apprentice, fear factor and countless others. You have like you know these are you know the very the very premise of these shows was that they featured like non-stars or at least initially non-stars um who became kind of who were ordinary people like you know interchangeable with any one of us. Um and there was a you know reality television fostered and nurtured and in some ways kind of prefigured or anticipated what we experienced on social media. namely that illusion of unmediated observation like the idea that you are have a direct window or like straightforward access into the personal life of you know of this person that you're following like everything like think about how important the um the confessional has become um you where the in reality television shows I mean like you know even like today like love is blind or you know 30day fiance or whatever it's called like where the participant starts talking to to the audience directly almost as if they were talking to a fan f you know a friend of theirs a close friend of theirs and and confiding in um their thoughts and feelings or reactions to whatever might have happened like kind of in in an ostensibly candid or unscripted way. So it seems more conversational in that respect. You also around the same time again like in the 90s and 2000s the an emergent genre of celeb reality television series like the Osbornes and keep you know the newlyweds and keeping up with the Kardashians all these like shows that throw famous people um into reality the reality TV format and make them seem more ordinary. And so this this is kind of like essentially what obviously social media did. Um but you know these early celeb reality shows um kind of got the ball rolling in that respect. They helped to make ordinary people famous as well as famous people ordinary but again through traditional um media means. Um and you know this these processes of celebrization that kind of accelerated or deepened in the 90s and 2000s radically expanded and um grew the number of traditional celebrities. So that you know before the 20th century or sorry before the end of before the 21st century you know if you were famous you were a an athlete or a rock star or an actor like that's kind of what you need. You have to be one of those to be famous for most of the 20th century. Today we have celebrity chefs and we have celebrity executives and entrepreneurs and we have celebrity drag queens and fashion stylists. um you know like you don't have to have necessarily be in the entertainment business or industry in order to be famous. I mean we even have celebrities mostly celebrity politicians which of course will be a considerable focus of the rest of this lecture. So the the range of celebrities and ways of being famous kind of significantly increased. Not only we seeing more kinds of famous people in traditional media industries, but we're also seeing seeing those famous people move increasingly across industries and sectors. So that you we have movie stars who are becoming lifestyle gurus. Um you know Gwyneith Pacho who earned her fame initially as an actor or actress and but of course now presides over the Goop like blog, website, lifestyle network, a brand or whatever. Um and kind of has been able to translate her fame and celebrity in the entertainment industry into the the alternative health lifestyle industry. Um, same thing with Rihanna. Like Rihanna obviously everyone knows once upon a time used to make music, used to be one of the biggest pop or R&B artists in the world and and she hasn't released an album and made any music in forever because because you know why would she? She's was able to kind of cash in her fame as a pop star, as an R&B performer. um and and kind of use it to leverage and promote her now massively successful beauty, you know, line of beauty and skincare products and like fashion more generally, fashion brand more generally, Fenty, which is kind of a cash cow um for her. Like, so who can who can begrudge Rihanna for not like, you know, racing to get into the studio or or frothing at the mouth at the idea of of touring um internationally or globally? um you know why would she need to uh I mean the biggest success story um in this regard is probably Donald Trump who was able to take um his fame as a realtor or really the re real estate mogul in the 70s or sorry I should say the 80s um and then use it to um build his visibility as the host or the the presiding figure of the apprentice reality television show and then um kind of coast to becoming um the you president the Republican nominee for the 2016 US presidential election and of course he he became US president. I mean that's kind of the ideal success story or like you know the the most spectacular pace of a celebrity moving across borders um you migrating from one industry or one sector to another. And of course like today now we see celebr the celebrity politician um the politician as celebrity is like a staple of of our culture. Um you know whether it's AOC or Obama or or or who you know the Trump himself you know these are these are famous people. um they are looked at and I mean even more closer to home like you they the Justin Trudeau, the Jagme Sings, the you pierv um whoever like you these they're they're treated as celebrities they employ the very same techniques and strategies as movie stars and rock stars and pop stars in order to succeed in the realm of electoral politics. So there's a kind of synergy between celebrity and politics that we've been able to see and trace. So there are essentially four kinds of ways in which celebrity is employed in politics. Four types of celebrity politics that I'm going to um focus on or look at here uh in short order. some of like some of them are pretty obvious um uh but the distinctions between at least a couple are a little slippier slippier or a little harder to wrap our heads around. So on the one hand there's celebrity advocacy or the work of celebrity advocates who are celebrities who not only support a charity or a cause as often movie stars or pop music stars do but actively lobby and campaign for policy policy reform around an issue. So I mean like think about how vocal and outspoken um someone like Leonardo DiCaprio has been a in respect of environmentalism or Angelina Jolie and kind of her um role as ambassador for the United I think there's specific agency in the United Nations or Emma Watson and kind of a as a the face of and proponent of of of feminism. I mean, even like Kim Kardashian um a couple of years ago like came out quite um vocally about in regards to like specifically prison reform um and or reform of the criminal justice system. So I mean you know these are all again like it's not just charity or philanthropy but um you know advocating for specific kinds of policy changes um and reforms um and you know some of that can um extend to even the case of like celebrity activism um when um activi when you know celebrities or famous people engage in actual actions in support of a particular cause. So, for example, when former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick um kneelled in protest, kneelled during the playing of the American Anthem um before NFL games um or at the beginning of NFL games in to kind of call attention to um police violence principally directed against black American communities and individuals. you know, there was that would be another form of celebrity advocacy. Al of course I think we're all aware celebrity endorsements in the realm of electoral politics can often be quite or attract a lot of fanfare. I'm not 100% sure this um that they necessarily tilt the balance in in any sort of way. Um but certainly celebrities often champion a political party or candidate um in upcoming elections or um you know Oprah Winfrey for example quite vocally and publicly endorsed Senator Barack Obama during his presidential campaign in 2008 and of course Obama went on to win a couple of um uh you win twice uh win a couple of presidential elections. I mean, I'm not suggesting, of course, that Oprah was the decisive or deciding fact here, but certainly she didn't hesitate to lend her voice. And in the most recent US presidential election four years ago, um uh you know, there was a raft of celebrities um who kind of all came out and expressed their support or or endorsement of of the the two candidates. So, I mean, that's a a pretty familiar example. Obviously the the extent to which um advocacy or endorsements by celebrities are effective and like actually deliver um real substantive change or results will very much be a function of um how the the particular kind of fame that those celebrities are able to command. So, it's not just I mean it's not just a case of um uh a a candidate, you know, a like a candidate for the US presidential election securing the most famous people to endorse them in an upcoming election. Um you know, there's some evidence to suggest that, you know, what really matters is how merit-based their fame is. So, um you not just uh not just uh you know like a um an actor who who is more accomplished than another um will probably um be able to command uh or deploy their celebrity capital more effectively than a peer who isn't quite as well or widely decorated or highly decorated. Um the celebrities who are more prestigious and well-known within their distinctive or particular spheres will tend to to fare better um or who have their advocacy and their act and their endorsements way or or account for more um obviously those celebrities whose fame is longer running or who've been um successful over a longer period of time or in the public eye for a much more extended period of time. um will will fare better as advocates or endorsers. Um and and lastly but not obviously obviously those celebrities whose fame extends or crosses borders who who have a more broader degree of celebrity like broader in the sense of geographical reach um as well as a wider reach um you know across social strata and cultural groups will tend to be or fare better as endorser as advi or as advocates. Then there are celebrity politicians and and as we'll see um politician celebrities. So pol celebrity politicians um invol refer to you know the term here refers to those celebrities who just decide to go beyond their one issue politics or or advocacy and decide to you and become office seekers. And of course there are some like pretty well-known and in some cases uh like rather well uh or rather quite successful um celebrity politicians. I mean, Ronald Reagan was a movie star in Hollywood for much of the middle of the and late 20th century and eventually you became rose to become a a two-term um uh US president. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, was at one point in time the biggest action movie star in the world and then eventually became governor of California. Jesse Venturus, you know, Cynthia Nixon, I mean, there's a whole range of actors who have sought public office and either wanted or been able to um kind of um generate enough noise to be significant political or electoral forces. Even Kanye West in the 2020 election um sought to or at least you know kind of dipped his toe into the electoral waters although I don't think his campaign ever really gained any traction then there you know I mean the reason why celebrity politicians have kind of um become uh like I mean the reason why they have there are so many celebrities who or there have been maybe not so many but a significant number of celebrities who've gone into the world of politics is because among other things, those celebrity politicians are able to kind of take advantage of their popularity with the public, but not just their popularity. And of course, it makes sense someone who's famous might have a um kind of a a built-in or the false advantage over their less famous contemporaries or competitors in the political field. But also, you know, the novelty of celebrity politicians has been ma one of their main attractions or reasons for their success. celebrity politicians are able to kind of posture or position themselves as political outsiders. Certainly, this is how Reagan kind of styled or portrayed himself as someone who wasn't a part of the official or established culture of Washington and therefore could kind of invade against career politicians and you know frame themselves as rebels against the system um you know who hadn't been compromised by careerism or opportunism. um um you know that the careerism and opportunism that we associate with professional politics. So as Marsh Harten Tendle put it in the reading or one of the readings that I signed for this lecture the electorate may be more responsive to celebrities who seek uh to win office if overall levels of trust in the established political system and party politicians are low and disillusioned. They turn to more conventional unconventional alternatives or political outsiders. I mean, that was part of the appeal of Donald Trump in his first goround as US president or in his first presidential campaign. I mean, that's how he portrayed himself as someone who wasn't a a career politician who hadn't spent years or even decades in Washington. I mean, I mean, Trump promised to drain the swamp and do things differently and, you know, get deals done and to, you know, win um um without interruption while he was in office. Uh I mean again that that that kind of depiction or or framing of of himself as an outsider to traditional electoral politics was incredibly you know successful um for Trump and kind of helped to give him or confer upon him his his uh his cache the the cache was able to take advantage of um in the 2020 or sorry the 2016 election. Um there are also politician celebrities which is kind of the reverse when a politician um takes advantage of or leverages their political career um in the sphere of celebrity and entertainment. The Obamas, for example, Barack and Michelle Obama have been um able to in their postpresidential careers um careers outside of the White House um been able to um you know, kind of position themselves as film production producers, right? I mean they they've launched or created a a production movie production company and um you know finance and and scene to completion at least a couple of well wellreceived uh documentaries. So this is a case of of a politician taking their political success and translating in the world of entertainment. I think the main point here is though that you know whether we're talking about you know like all of these examples illustrate how the same promotional techniques used by the entertainment industry to produce movie and music stars now being used by political parties to turn politicians into celebrities. So stuff like I mean don't take it for granted that there are interviews and print and television media like TV and among other things with with politicians that kind of you make them more accessible and therefore visible to the public. um and the appearances at events and fundraisers and gallas. These are all a part and parcel of turning politicians into celebrities and using the machineries and tech strategies associated with celebrity um um upon these figures. So as John Street puts in this quote that I pulled here, all politicians are celebrity politicians. Only some are more convincing, more authentic performers than others. All of them are I mean today it would be inconceivable for a politician to not be concerned with building their profile or visibility having some kind of public outwardfacing representation of themselves. I mean, politicians today seek you and go out of their way, especially when they're on the campaign trail, to share their personal lives with the public in a way that would kind of affirm their authenticity. um make them seem like real genuine people who are not just saying whatever they're saying in order to try to win win office or or get votes but rather um you know to prove to the public that they are the people who they seem to be in their political ads or when they're delivering speeches to their you know doing fans in public and and of course social media has been a an exemplary means or vehicle by means of which um celebrity or sorry Politicians can use of all things micro celebrity in order to gain direct unmediate access to the public and and so so that the public can have direct and unmediate access to their politicians and see and hear what they're thinking and doing on a regular or more regular kind of basis rather than just waiting for them to be quoted in a newspaper article or interviewed by the CBC or CTV news or whoever the celebrification of politics generally speaking I mean you can it doesn't start with the end of the 20th century I mean we can date it to the early days of network television um some commentators and historians suggest that the first televised US presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in in 1960 hailed or signaled the this, you know, proximity of celebrity to politics. Many commentators at the time described the younger and more telegenic John F. Kennedy as cool and witty and charming. Um, and Kennedy was kind of perceived as having won the debate more or less definitively or decisively, whereas the older and more experienced Nixon was kind of reported as being nervous and uncomfortable and just I mean there was this this sense or the consensus was that Nixon lost. Now that was because of the television broadcast. There were a number of polls taken after the debate that seemed to suggest um uh members of the public who had only heard the debate on radio had a more had like a much more um uh moderate or or close uh like you know the feeling or perception was that Kennedy and Nixon the debate had been a bit of a wash for both of them. Again, if you saw the debate on TV, um you know, again, the the widespread or or widely shared consensus was that JFK Trump or or trounced, I should say, uh Nixon. Um but again, radio listeners who wouldn't have seen either of the figures came to a radically dis radically disperate sort of conclusion. And I think that kind of heralded the importance of celebrity to politics. um the importance of politicians being savvy in managing their fame and visibility. Um today the you know success for politicians in elections is often determined by their success in establishing their celebrity and fame and just how savvy they are about managing their media relations. You being competent, being effective as a legislator or as a policy maker, you know, is increasingly less important um than being well-liked and well known by the public. um as for example Hillary Clinton um um discovered uh in 2016 when she was surprisingly defeated by you know a completely inexperienced but certainly famous competitor in Trump again like I'm not suggesting that that was the only reason for Clinton's uh loss um but you know it kind of it was a sort of um gotcha a moment in the world of politics when it underscored that um having a a long history or resume, you know, whatever you might think of the quality of that resume on Clinton's part, but like having, you know, a history of experience and expertise was no longer the if it ever was the decisive or clinching factor in electoral success. And and certainly a lot of this has to do with the way that media coverage of politics has evolved over the last especially I think four decades. using spectacle and controversy and gossip and rumor mongering. All the stuff that we normally associate with entertainment news or sports coverage are now integral to the the cable news formats and that we associate with coverage of political or public affairs. And you know, in the same way that knowledgeable insiders from Hollywood dominate entertainment news and celebrity journalism, we find today on CNN or Fox or MSNBC a like an entire army of talking heads and experts who discuss politics and politicians in again in the same way that we would expect um you know those insiders on E or or Entertainment Tonight um to to discuss um famous people. And I think just to wrap things up here, you know, there are I think we can maybe draw some conclusions or or radically maybe disperate or different conclusions about um where this all leads or or where this all heads or where this is all headed. Um is celebrity good for politics? that I mean that is essentially the question that we want to hear like is it have celebrity politics been beneficial and advantageous for democracy or have they been bad for our democracies? Um I mean I think you can make at least a formal case for celebrity being good for for democracy. see in electoral politics to the extent that I mean they've enabled celebrity politics has enabled non-traditional politicians to enter the political sphere and reinvigorate and re-energize democratic politics. um whether it's Trump or Reagan or Schwarzenegger or whoever um these are figures who um bring a different style um and and and way or strategy of uh of comporting themselves as politicians um to electoral politics. so that people who've not spent their entire lives pursuing office um enter um public life and and commit or dedicate themselves to um to public life. And you know, celebrity advocates and activists have unique abilities to reach out to and mobilize the public who may be otherwise apathetic or indifferent around certain kinds of issues. I mean, me too, at least to a certain extent. again like strictly speaking me too. The term was coined by or the hashtag was coined by the activist um Toronto Burke. But I mean one of the reasons why it gained so much traction and and rose to such visibility um you know circa 2017 2018 was precisely because so many celebrities particularly female celebrities in Hollywood like movie stars in particular movie and television stars started sharing their experiences of you know harassment and sexual violence in Hollywood which then kind of expanded or which you know allowed the conversation or discussion to um encompass or include you know violence and and harassment in the workplace in other kinds of workplaces. So again that that and perhaps the the energy um and enthusiasm with which uh the me too movement was initially originally greeted um wouldn't have been possible had it not been for the contributions of those celebrity advocates. And I mean having celebrity advocates involved in social and political causes can also extend the legitimacy and visibility um of campaigns, struggles and movements that might have before or previously been regarded as marginal or or illegitimate or just not just may have not nearly been as successful. I mean, having black American celebrities like, you know, the affformentioned Kaepernick or NBA stars in the 2020 um bubble, so-called bubble in the um in which in Orlando, Florida, where the NBA completed its regular season and held its playoffs in the in the midst of the pandemic. Um, I mean, you know, this, you know, we can't, like, who could deny that having famous faces attached to BLM or Black Lives Matter didn't give um help help to raise the profile of the of that movement and and kind of have an symbolic sort of importance and I mean, celebrity advocates can and have encouraged greater participation in electoral politics from their fans or their audiences or their public. So that I mean you know this and this might be really important at a time when overall voting turnout remains pretty underwhelming in most western countries. So, I mean, celebrities can help re-engage disenchanted voters, especially younger voters and voters of color, you know, the voters who are just not the light types to show up to the ballot box um and who might not otherwise have bothered with participating can but can be poked and provided by their um you know, by their the famous people that they admire or seek to emulate. Now, of course, you know, there are also those who denounce or or criticize the the imation of celebrity and politics and see it as a kind of negative force on our democracies. Um, you know, celebrity activists and advocates can end up comporting themselves as unelected quote unquote leaders whose followings derive from interest in them as celebrities, not their causes. and people may you know identify with a celebrity but not necessarily care about that particular cause. Um these celebrities then end up having kind of unearned attention as political figures especially I think this becomes especially problematic when um these celebrities receive inordinate attention from the press in ways that discount or diminish the contributions of other nonfamous people. So that you know for example Alyssa Milano getting more shine or or being regarded as a face of me too at the expense of activists and academics like Toronto Burke among others who helped to coin the term and kind of laid a lot of the groundwork for you know the disclosure and sharing of stories and experiences so that competing issues or perspectives can be crowded out while um and you know other contributions can be kind of you know discounted and ignored while celebrities receive all of the credit. And and of course, you know, there's a a long line of criticism of celebrity politics and politicians that suggest celebrity and fame and everything we associate with them end up trivializing politics, turning elections and debates into basically popularity contests between people. Yeah. Where we're kind of enjoined or or asked as a public to vote for the people that we like best. Not necessarily because we we believe these figures are you know the best leaders are the most informed have the most sensible policy and approach with respect to you law and ideology like substantive questions and issues but just like because we like their personality or find them likable. Um so that politicians end up being more valued for their style or their wit or even their you know unfortunately their physical appearances or attractiveness um conventional attractiveness rather than their competence or their experience um as lawmakers or as policy makers or as political leaders. Electioning becomes more about spin and image management. you have like like publicity stunts and and and other sorts of events that are meant to just boost the the the profile of of the politician. As Marsh Hart and Tindle put it, in-depth analysis and careful deliberation are at risk of being replaced by star power, marketing, rock concerts, stylists, and cleverly made but ultimately shallow documents, Facebook profiles, Twitters, blogs, and pseudo events. So I mean like actually discussing the issues matters le you know having a a politician a political leader actually discuss and explain the issues that they care about matters less than them being likable or attractive. Um all this stuff is you we associate with fame and celebrity more generally. Some critics have suggested that I mean this introjection or insertion of of a celebrity into politics explains why certain populisms on the left and the right alike have um kind of gained their juice over the last couple of I don't know last six seven years. um Trump in the US, you know, Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020 when he was running in the US Democratic primaries, Jeremy Corbin when he was elected our leader of the UK um Labor Party. I think again these are incredibly controversial or polarizing figures who were um at least to some extent lauded for like were cheering from them became as much a part of um um it was much about um you know almost like a kind of fandom that surrounded you you know the figure of the Bernie bro or the the mega you know the blind like mindless mega zealot or whatever you know these became you popularized around that time. So that politics, you know, like critics suggest that these populist leaders command blind loyalty from their followers that earn politics based into the equivalent of fandom and the the personalities and performances of charismatic leaders like Sanders or Trump or whoever supersede the substance of the policies and programs they support. Um people can't you know when you when they a fan of Donald Trump says they can't explain why um they support Trump or you know and express or reveal ignorance and I don't have to pick on Trump like you can literally pick any politician across the political spectrum there will be some some of their fans or some of the their supporters who will sort of be equally oblivious of what their the object of their affection or admiration actually stands for um as Moffet puts it, these leaders become quasi celebrity quasi celebrities known as much or sometimes more for their media performances and stylistic outbursts than for the content of their politics. So I mean you know that I think underscores or shows how impact and consequence impact of and consequences of celebrity on politics has been very much dual-edged. Um it has been a double-sided sword. Okay, let's stop there. Until next time, take care.