Television is a storytelling medium, so applying the latest dramaturgical techniques of reality TV to the news was inevitable, says Terence Moran, Professor of Media Ecology at New York University. He’s teaching a senior seminar comparing each of the candidates to a reality show, and says the students “have become interested in the political process, because they are seeing it through a lens they understand, reality programming.”
Professor Moran says his former colleague, the author Neil Postman, foresaw this application of unvarnished entertainment values to everything we consume, even our election of a president. “In his seminal book, ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,’ Neil had a chapter, ‘Reach Out and Elect Someone,’ predicting everything would eventually be reduced to entertainment, even the most important civic events of our time.”
For decades, actually, election campaigns have been covered as narrative stories (think “horse race” metaphor). But with the industry in an intense competition for eyeballs and profits, Trump has cranked the trend up a notch by assuming the role of an unusually captivating lead horse. As his presence pushed up viewership for Republican debates earlier this year, both Trump and the networks benefitted. CBS president Les Moonves said in a widely quoted comment: "It may not be good for America, but it's ... good for CBS.”
