The Medium Is Still the Message

25Aug23

In fact, this may be truer than ever.

KEY POINTS

• Marshall McLuhan’s idea that the medium is the message is apparent in the presidential candidates.
• How the candidates on the debate stage announced their candidacy says something about the image they project.
• DeSantis launches 2024 bid on Twitter Spaces, Ramaswamy on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man has probably been a reference in every presidential campaign and debate since it was published in 1964, but with every major advancement in media technology, it becomes even more relevant.

The idea that the message is not merely the content, but also the mechanism for delivering the content, is especially important in an era where there is a plethora of options for transmitting a message.

How Technology Shapes Politics

For example, Twitter launched in 2006, and by the time the 2008 election season was in swing, Twitter had about 2.5 million unique users, according to ComScore. That rose to over 20 million in the next year, but importantly even when it was just 2.5 million unique users, the platform was already a major influence in U.S. politics.

On Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008, John McCain and Barack Obama took the debate stage at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The next day, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter blogged about the event with graphs showing the Twitter activity at pivotal moments in the debate.

Quickly, candidates understood their messages were being carried not just in the debate medium, the televised event medium, but also the social media medium. This inflection point in many ways echoed the first-ever televised presidential debate in 1960. Richard Nixon was, by most accounts, well-spoken and well-prepared, but sweating and appeared haggard. In contrast, John F. Kennedy looked healthy and vivacious.

Seeing, not just hearing, the candidates made a difference. Politician Bob Dole recalled the impact of seeing the candidates to a PBS reporter.

I was listening to it on the radio coming into Lincoln, Kansas, and I thought Nixon was doing a great job. Then I saw the TV clips the next morning, and he … didn’t look well. Kennedy was young and articulate and … wiped him out.

What Nixon was saying was overshadowed by the way he looked and that was only made possible for millions to see because of television cameras.

The Power of Social Media

In much the same way the lesson of the television camera became a new force in politics, the power of social media influenced a new generation of politicians. Barack Obama, with over 100 million Twitter followers, was the first president to respond to questions via Twitter and has been called “the first Twitter president.”

Social media campaigns have become important tools for elections since 2009. Donald Trump joined Twitter in 2009 and had over 88 million followers when his account was banned. Like traditional news media, social media can also be a source for critique of the candidates.

While presidential candidates can’t completely control how and where their campaigns are covered, they can control how and where they announce their candidacies. This makes the medium they choose for this important message especially important in understanding how they want to project their image.

In this debate season, it’s interesting to look at the mediums each candidate chose to announce their presidency and how the grammar of those mediums best supports their messages.

The Importance of Image

The most obvious example may be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who announced his run on Twitter Spaces (now X). Technical glitches aside, DeSantis chose a platform that is itself facing controversy. As an article in The Atlantic put it,

Ever since Elon Musk announced his intention to acquire Twitter, take the company private, and introduce a new era of free-speech absolutism, users have been threatening to leave the platform—a threat that has been likened to those made by liberals during the 2016 presidential election to move to Canada.

What was it about Twitter that made DeSantis want to align himself with the platform? There are many possibilities—perhaps he wanted Musk’s endorsement, maybe he was hoping to capture the influence Donald Trump had enjoyed on Twitter, or maybe he was sending a message about free speech, or maybe he was making a point of not being afraid to step into the fray—whatever it may be. One thing is certain, it was not a happenstance.

Several other candidates took a more traditional route, announcing their candidacies at events in their own states or states with electoral influence. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced at a Town Hall in New Hampshire; North Dakota Gov. and former Microsoft executive Doug Burgum did it during a speech in Fargo, North Dakota; former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared he was running during a speech in Bentonville, Arkansas; Mike Pence had his formal campaign kickoff in Ankeny, Iowa; Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina made his candidacy public in a speech at Charleston Southern University, a private Baptist college and Scott’s alma mater (which also happens to be in his hometown of North Charleston).

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley took a different route and made a video announcement. Her message, “time for a new generation” was transmitted in a newish way: Joe Biden also announced via video message. An advantage to this method is the editorial control—you may not be able to manage the humidity in North Charleston (or the snowstorm of Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 announcement), but a pre-recorded video allows for many takes and optimal settings.

Another interesting announcement came from biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who broke the news on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Like DeSantis’ medium of choice, Ramaswamy chose a platform that may have been more influential than anything he said when he announced.

As the debate season gets underway, it will become clearer what each of these candidates stands for and how the mediums they have chosen reflect their messages.

As Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out these mediums are not just a transmission mechanism, they bring with them a culture—and tapping into that culture is part of the strategy.

About the Author

Rebecca Dolgin is a Ph.D. researcher at the New School for Social Research studying misunderstandings, identity, and group behavior. She is a former editor-in-chief of The Knot and has contributed to Marie Claire, Women’s Health, and Elle.
Source: https://tinyurl.com/4y4njtm9

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