Trumping the Media - by Michael Mario Albrecht (Paperback)

About the Book

"Examines the rise of Donald Trump through the lens of new media landscapes and cultural shifts that have emerged since the 1980s, when Trump came to prominence"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Still finding Trump to be 'too much' to handle? Not in this book. Trumping the Media puts media representations, alterations, and power relations related to the ex-President in one place, ready for a critical and cultural reading of an era yet-to-be gone by that remains to be understood in terms of the realities of today's political, journalistic, and entertainment realms. This book is both accessible and deep." --Robert E. Gutsche, Jr., Senior Lecturer in Critical Digital Media Practice, Lancaster University, UK, author of Media Control: News as an Institution of Power and Social Control (Bloomsbury), and Associate Editor at Journalism Practice

"From the shock jocks of the 1990s to Fox News and social media, Donald Trump's election relied on a right-wing media revolution. Michael Mario Albrecht leaves nothing out in his study of American media in the Age of Trump, challenging us to think of the media as more than Twitter and TV. The revolution has infiltrated professional wrestling, celebrity gossip, and once apolitical activism. It has changed everything about American politics, and journalism will never be the same. Trumping the Media is a must read for those in search of truth in the post-truth era." --Michael Patrick Cullinane, Professor of U.S. History, University of Roehampton, London, UK

About the Author

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).