Barack Obama and Celebrity Spectacle

In the contemporary era of media politics, the role of image and media spectacle has played an increasingly important role in presidential politics and other domains of society. As corporate journalism became increasingly tabloidized, the line between news and information and entertainment blurred and politics became a form of entertainment and spectacle. In this context, presidential candidates become celebrities and they are packaged and sold like the products of the culture industry. Candidates enlist celebrities in their election campaigns and are increasingly covered in the same way as celebrities, with tabloidized news obsessing about their private lives.