Dramatization in Politics

In the Van Zoonen book I found the chapter on dramatization in politics to be very fascinating. Of most interest were the plots presented.Van Zoonen presents us with the quest, bureaucracy, conspiracy and soap. I find it fascinating to examine the intermingling of thses plots to paint a political picture.

This chapter begs the question of whether art imitates life or if life imitates art.
Starting with the quest as defined by Zoonen as a candidate fighting odds and overcoming in a race to the finish. This seems to be a linear plot focusing on over coming odds and working.
This clip speaks to Obama on the campain trail, and how he’s there for the people. It also speaks to him working on a grass roots level on the campaign, and trying to achieve his goals. The quest is “built on this populist tradition, with ‘the people’ figuring prominently to authenticate the quest of the hero, who is portrayed as ‘the outsider, the man of the people, renewing American ideals and metaphorically brining Washington practice in line with the classical form…’” (p. 111). Clealy this video shows Obama as the man of the people promoting the ideology of Americans coming together.
Far less idealistic in nature is the plot of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy as stated by Van Zoonen is “politics to be a strange disconnected field at best, or a quagmire of calculation, manipulation, and dishonesty at worst” (112). Futurama from Fox makes light of yet shows our overall discontent with bureaucracy.

This clip from “Futurama” sums up some of the angers of bureaucracy. It shows the bureaucracy as a nameless faceless organization against which its hard to fight. This clip represents some of the anxieties of Americans against bureaucracy. Additionally, this episode ends with Hermes, the bureaucrat of our little protagonist bunch helping to win and fight for the good and just cause. Fox not only addresses bureaucracy, they address conspiracy.
One doesn’t have to watch too many episodes of King of the Hill to know that Hank Hill’s neighbor is all about conspiracy theories. He is oober paranoid. In this clip Bobby (Hank’s son) becomes caught up in believing one of Dale’s conspiracy theories and gets paranoid.



Dale often speaks of large bureaucratic agencies in secret working on strange plots. Clearly, this is reflective of conspiracy presented in Van Zoonen.

Lastly we can see politics presented as soap, or highly dramatized. I think a fantastic example of this is what we talked about with Sarah Palin, and her political journey constantly being compared to a soap opera. Matt Damon weighs in on Palin, and compares her journey to stereotypical Hollywood plots.
Also, in this clip we can see her life being compared to drama.
We can see Palin fighting back, but this is presented in a soap-like manner.
Clearly from real life examples and from entertainment we can see the validity of of Van Zoonen’s concepts of dramatization in politics. i feel that there is also a great deal of validity to what we spoke about regarding women in politics.

Had Palin not been a woman, I don't feel her home life situation would have been a widely broadcast. In addition, we can see from the Matt Damon clip him focusing in on her as a woman. He speaks to the fact that her campaign is playing out like a "Disney movie" and continues to speak to the fact that she's a small town mom. His statement is loaded with anti-feminist language.

Van Zoonen makes several good points regarding politics, and the plots we can see present in politics. I have given examples of quest, bureaucracy, conspiracy and soap. I hope we all follow Bobby Hill's advice of being vigilant when we consume media. Moreover I hope we can all use these themes to be critical thinkers when evaluating news and other media sources.