A Political Kaleidoscope

This chapter provides some materials to illustrate how some political scenarios were punctuated with media logic. It suggests that an alternative theoretical perspective for understanding voting behavior. The chapter focuses on an interactive emotional and communicative perspective for understanding political communication. It suggests that the mediation of political experience by television (TV) also explicates an apparent anomaly that has been noticed by numerous political analysts, including Seymour Martin Lipset: Americans voted for the status quo and continued divided government on November 8, 1988. The “missing children” issue was constructed through the efforts of moral entrepreneur, John Walsh, the father of abducted and murdered Adam Walsh, who later became a prime mover for a TV show, “America’s Most Wanted.” Some 5,000 American per week call in tips about how the wanted fugitives who are graphically cast in reenactments of pornographic violence resemble their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and shopping mall patrons. Gonzo justice was emerging. There was more on the kaleidoscope.

Art · Kaleidoscope · Political science · Politics · Visual arts · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Law · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Race, History, and American Society