Page 387 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Pol t cal Enterta nment: From The West Wing to South Park

But 20 seconds later, the newscaster will move on, having forgotten this sup-
posedly most important of stories. By contrast, entertainment can harness the
affective powers of fiction by introducing us to characters and stories that hit
home. Fictional characters and celebrities frequently become important indi-
viduals to many citizens, and we can also invest remarkably high levels of trust
and admiration in them. Certainly, they can violate this trust and admiration,
but in political entertainment’s better moments, they can harness such pow-
ers to attract our attention and mobilize us into action. “Free Tibet” concerts,
political documentaries, and political raps, for instance, have proven powerful
in mobilizing political support for otherwise hidden issues. Particularly when
politicians and the realm of politics have suffered such losses in respect by many
citizens, and when many citizens have turned in disgust from politics proper,
entertainment at times craftily constructs a back door into politics.
Thus, for instance, in his book on Serial Television, Glen Creeber suggests
that for all its glaring historical and cultural inaccuracies and ethnocentric out-
look, the famed American miniseries, Roots, may have played a key role in in-
troducing white Americans to some of the horrors of slavery and to African
American culture. One could certainly imagine an educational program or doc-
umentary that would depict West African culture with more accuracy, and that
would be substantially more honest and true to history. But with the powers of
mass entertainment behind it, Roots drew huge audiences, and became one of
the key popular-culture landmarks of its time.
Ironically, then, we find political entertainment in an odd position: it can
trivialize politics, and as such may well be in part responsible for political apa-
thy and misunderstanding; but it may also energize politics, make citizens care,
and bring citizens to politics. Therefore, we would ultimately be wise to avoid
mere generalization, and move towards evaluating specific instances of political
entertainment.

CasE sTuDiEs
In recent years, one of the more successful instances of political entertain-
ment has been NBC’s The West Wing (1999–2006). Eschewing the more usual
television settings of court room, police station, hospital, or family home, The
West Wing followed the lives of the fictional President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet’s
White House staff in their place of work. Scripts frequently drew from ongo-
ing political issues and discussions of the day, whether prominent (the death
penalty, terrorism, or partisan politics, for instance) or backroom (such as an
entire episode about the census). By giving a fictional glimpse into the lives of
the world’s power brokers, The West Wing implored its audience to care about
the issues that its characters wrestled with on a daily basis, and it neatly mixed
substantial and often quite sophisticated discussion of politics with an entertain-
ing format. Moreover, in doing so, it introduced many viewers to the fineries of
who does what in American politics, teaching viewers the political process. One
simply could not follow The West Wing without necessarily engaging with the
sphere of politics.