Why Is so Much Media Attention Devoted to the Personalities and Personal Lives of Political Leaders?

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Q7. Why is so much media attention devoted to the personalities and personal lives of political leaders? |

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The personal lives of political leaders have been increasingly exposed to us through the media such as radio, television, the internet and social media pages. Politicians have gradually come to terms with engaging audiences through popular culture in this media age. In this essay, the convergence between popular culture and politics will be discussed in the following political leaders using popular culture for political communication, popular culture’s description of political leaders and the impact on audience by those uses. The case study examined will use the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to express the trend of how politicians have increasingly used popular culture to establish themselves and communicate politically to youth group.

“Popular culture is seen as more than the carrier of knowledge but as contributing to identities and feelings of attachment.” (Street et al. 2011). Street, Inthorn and Scott (2011) have stated that youths are able to identify with the broader concept of politics through discussions about popular culture and entertainment pleasures. It is useful in understanding how evolving media systems today have allowed for the personal lives of politicians to be shared and accepted as a common practice in political communication. Particularly the youths engage with popular culture are one of aesthetic judgement. They usually carry upon aesthetic and other judgements in viewing popular culture and entertainment which involves “distinguishing between the popular cultural formats being employed and the skills of those who use them” (Frith 1996 in Street et al. 2011) The understanding of how audiences can identify themselves with the political leaders and their personal domains has somewhat contributed to the rise of the “celebrity politician”.

Frank Furedi (2010) argues that “The term celebrity is not simply a noun...