by Michael Mario Albrecht (Author)The ascendency of Donald J. Trump to the office of president was not a fluke. Changes... Read more
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by Michael Mario Albrecht (Author)
The ascendency of Donald J. Trump to the office of president was not a fluke. Changes in the media environment and changes in the political landscape converged and provided fertile ground for a demagogic populist to exploit existing structures for his personal and political gains. A right-wing ecosystem had developed that included cable television, talk radio, social media, and imageboards. The political rise of Trump occurred alongside a mainstreaming of far-right politics and a skepticism towards long-established institutions. Trump was able to exploit the shifts in politics and the media environment for his political gain. He deployed a post-truth strategy that challenged established media and political institutions and their claims to be arbiters of truth and protectors of democracy.
This book explores the shifts in the media environment that made the political career of Donald Trump possible. The author shows the ways that Trump was able to inhabit the new media and political landscape and take advantage of journalistic norms and practices that were susceptible to exploitation by a demagogue with no allegiance to the truth and no reverence towards the foundations of liberal democracy. Understanding the ways in which Trump was able to emerge as a powerful political force is essential to those invested in challenging the momentum of the alt-right and forwarding the project of democracy.Michael Mario Albrecht is Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, USA, in Communication Studies. His published works include excursions into popular music, television, masculinity, politics, and the Olive Garden. In 2017, he taught one of the first college courses focused explicitly on Donald J. Trump. His first book is entitled Masculinity in Contemporary Quality Television (2015).