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The Impact of Popular Culture on Political Communications and Political Campaigns

Introduction

The use of popular culture is not a new thing for politics in the United States as popular culture can be seen as an integral part of campaigns and communication in modern politics. In fact, it is politicians' job to reach a vast number of people to convey their political agenda (Zooten, pp.5-18). It is also important to know that generally public does not have more interest in politics and the majority of people does not have complete information about politicians and their political ideologies. Popular culture can be defined as a cultural activity or commercial product that aims to meet the ideas and opinions of public. The popular can be of different types and mainly include television programs, books, songs and movies (Zooten, pp.11-33). There is no doubt about the fact that many politicians in the United States take support of political culture in order to get attention of their audiences or public.

In fact, majority of American political parties and politicians has recognized the importance of popular culture in politics and particularly in elections (Serfaty, pp.115-129). Researchers explain that many politicians believe that popular culture is an effective tool in today's complex political environment as it not only helps them to gain support of people but also a useful technique to win the heart of public (Cloonan & Street, 33-38). In addition, there is also another aspect in relation to the use of popular culture in politics as some of the politicians believe that popular culture should effectively be used in political campaigns in order to become a leader of people (Zooten, pp.5-18). This paper aims to discuss the role of popular culture in politics and investigate the use of it in political campaigns and media coverage.

Discussion

The role of communication cannot be avoided between two constituents of the political landscape, i.e. public and politicians. This means that political communication has a significant importance in minimizing the gap between the people and their leaders (Zooten, pp.11-33). This can only be achieved if politicians maintain frequent or uninterrupted communication with their people. Popular culture is an effective way that allows political parties and politicians to speak to their audience in a heart-touching manner. Popular culture enables politicians to exactly understand the emotional needs of public and respond to meet them (Stanyer, 139-156). No doubt, political campaigns are part of political communication and can be seen as a platform that politicians use to speak to their audience or public. In fact, political campaigns are initiated with the purpose of mobilizing people in support of political agendas by creating awareness of different political issues (Johnson-Cartee & Copeland, 3-18). It is also essential to know that political campaigns in the street on media are not only executed to retain existing supporters but also attract new supporters or voters. This suggests that the main emphasis of every political campaign is on gaining support of people.

On the other hand, the connection between ...