The Donald Diet
Yesterday I summarized the results of meticulously examining my own media consumption over the course of the past week, and noting that I was reasonably reassured about the relative diversity of my news diet. This form of personal media tracking seems to be a popular activity at present: New York Times technology correspondent Farhad Manjoo reported today on his own project undertaken last week. Manjoo’s more pointed, pertinent idea was to try to remove any mention of Donald Trump from his diet — the Atkins to my Five-a-Day.
Manjoo’s efforts yielded interesting insights into the wider media ecosystem in which we live. He notes the ‘spreadability’ of Trump coverage across such supposedly distinct cultural realms as sport and music, suggesting almost nowhere is safe from the Donald’s dominance. And Manjoo argues that “Trump’s fame may break all records”, making him the most discussed person on the planet, in history.
Of course, the highly interconnected and interdependent ecosystem is precisely what Trump so ruthlessly exploited to win the election, which amplified his tweets — initially sent to a relatively modest 15 million followers — to saturation point both online and in the more traditional medium of cable news. Quite how this happened is the primary focus of my forthcoming thesis, and as this kicks into fifth gear in the next few weeks, I’ll continue to share what I find out.
