Jutel, Olivier (2017) American populism, Glenn Beck and affective media production. International Journal of Cultural Studies, Online . pp. 1-18. ISSN 1367-8779
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Abstract
This article examines the centrality of affective media production to contemporary American populism with a case study of the right-wing broadcaster Glenn Beck. The rise of far-right media and Donald Trump in social media spaces demonstrates the convergence of the economic and political logic of affect. In soliciting the affective and collaborative labour of users, affective media necessarily deploys discourses of social transformation, autonomy and critical knowingness. Beck’s show exemplifies this logic with Beck functioning as a leader of the Tea Party movement who perform ‘free labour’ for Fox News and Beck’s own media empire, while experiencing this as a form of revolutionary education. Where this audience movement speaks to the political ontology of affective media is in the return of a fetishistic ‘symbolic efficiency’. In foreshadowing Trump, Beck articulates an antagonistic division of the social with a populist community of jouissance and individuation both threatened and constituted by the rapacious enemy.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JC Political theory |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Language, Arts and Media |
| Depositing User: | Olivier Jutel |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Feb 2017 23:44 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Feb 2017 23:44 |
| URI: | https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/9582 |
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