Entertaining the Citizen

Liesbet Van Zoonen's Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics and Popular Culture Converge

As Van Zoonen notes, the soap opera allows for these opposing goals to be met because the genre itself is so heavily gendered and because the format itself resists narrative closure.

A related issue here is the relationship between politics/politicians and celebrity, something that has come up recently in the 2008 Presidential Election, as the McCain campaign sought to belittle Obama's ability to captivate large audiences by likening him to people like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Many read the juxtaposition as designed not only to deligitimize Obama, but as an effort to draw parallels between a black man and two young white women, a parallel that has been used throughout American history to justify anti-black prejudice in the name of 'protecting' white femininity.

In chapter three, Van Zoonen talks about the role popular music plays in political campaigns and electoral politics. It's unclear, but one suspects Van Zoonen uses "popular music" to include a number of genres other than 'pop', and that she includes in this term things like rock, punk, rap, hip hop, country, etc. During the social unrest that led to the late 1960s and early 1970s counterculture, musicians played an instrumental (no pun intended) part in lending a voice to movements like the anti-Vietnam war movement. The political climate and the structure of the music industry in the early 2000s were considerably different; only recently have we started to hear musicians take a more openly critical view of American foreign policy or its political leaders.

Below are eight videos that illustrate some of these concepts. They are:

proposes several interesting paradigms for understanding the intersections between American politics and pop culture. In chapter two, for instance, she addresses the way politicians and the media covering them return over and over again to the soap opera as a metaphor that can be used for two diametrically opposed purposes: first to liken something or someone as 'soap' can work to discredit it/them as insubstantial fluff; in the second instance, the soap opera is latched on to not to deride something or someone, but to create a more affirmative narrative of a a person or event, one that often includes themes of perserverance in the face of adversity, overcoming a setback, being tested, etc.

1. "The One" -- anti-Obama ad by Mccain campaign
2. "Celeb" -- anti-Obama ad by McCain campaign
3. "Fan Club" -- anti-Obama ad by McCain campaign
4. Paris Hilton responds to McCain's "Celeb" ad
5. Buffalo Springfield's counterculture anthem about the Sunset Strip riots, "For What It's Worth" (1967)
6. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's protest against the Kent State Massacre, "Ohio" (1970)
7. Eminem's "Mosh" (2004)
8. The Dixie Chicks's "Not Ready to Make Nice"

1. "The One"




2. "Celeb"




3. "Fan Club"



4. Paris Hilton

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

5. Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth"




6. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio"




7. Eminem's "Mosh"




8. The Dixie Chicks's "Not Ready to Make Nice"

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