Foley Institute: Trump and the Media panel

Sphering between the rhetoric Donald Trump has spoken through his first three weeks as president two speakers explained how to live in the world of Trump through the lens of media.

Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, a political science professor at the University of North Texas, and Joseph Uscinski, a political science professor at the University of Miami and co-author of American Conspiracy Theories, spoke to a group of roughly 200 students at Washington State University on Monday.

With the new adaptations in social media for both political figures and citizens Eshbaugh-Soha sees Trump as using an antagonistic approach with a unique angle.

“[The] president tends to have a significant impact on increasing public support amongst those who watch presidential addresses,” Eshbaugh-Soha said, noting a 40 percent increase in coverage when presidents use a national address. “American’s aren’t interested in politics. A lot of evidence we know on Twitter is there isn’t a positive benefit.”

Eshbaugh-Soha noted that Trump, much like his other 51 predecessors in office, don’t like the media and that presidents make a conscious effort to influence the media, with the end result being to advance policy change.

However, both scholars noted that with politics and the media there is a give-and-take that ideally is an equal balance. Uscinski discussed what he believes to be the three key aspects of media to focus on: conspiracy theories, fake news and the notion of people rejecting facts.

With Trump running on the campaign of political elites selling out American’s, like Mexico sending rapists to the United States to harm citizens and take jobs, looking passed that is central in Uscinski’s opinion.

“Fake news works very well in the US particularly right now because we have partisans who have divided themselves,” Uscinski said. “People create their own little bubbles where they get the information they want and sometimes those news outlets aren’t very good. Social media makes news travel farther and faster than ever, but there is a lot of talk about fake news which is good.”

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan was scheduled to attend the panel but was unable to attend due to flight cancellation out of Seattle.

Three questions:

1 How can media pay attention but not truly pay attention to Trump and other figures that would change the approach to what they said and what is reported?

2 Is it possible for the president to block the media out from quoting him but having more true information get out, by using anonymous sources?

3 How have we got to become a society driven by the need for information from our leaders that aren’t even paid attention to?