COMM 150: Postman, Palin, celebrities and the politics of image

So the question is: Is ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin acting like: (A) a celebrity these days? Or (B) a politician?

Or (C): Is she acting like both?

I think the answer is C, if you buy Neil Postman's theory that political candidates, like product commercials, "provide a slogan, a symbol or a focus that creates for viewers a comprehensive and compelling image of themselves," something that "touch[es] and sooth[es] the deep reaches of our discontent." Like the queeen in "Snow White," we look into the mirror and we see reflected not ourselves as we are ... but as we'd like to be. Palin is a master of that, because she articulates a lot of people's discontents -- with liberals, with President Obama, with "blue bloods," the list goes on -- and presents a down-home, folksy image of the way they'd like to be.

And her reality TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska, has been criticized as nothing but a glorified political ad.

Here's a review of the latest segment in "Ken Tucker's TV," a review column in EW.com, an Entertainment Weekly website. Tucker described it as "a two-day, father-daughter trip to a remote area of Alaska, settin’ up camp and eatin’ 'Spam out of a can'." Here's the image, or "version of Palin," that Tucker saw: "The plucky gal with the brown hunting cap whose pink stitching read, 'Girls and Guns,' scrambling over hills and high brush with her father, toting what her dad called 'a varmint gun' and helping to skin and gut the caribou that the hunting party collected." Tucker thought a lot of the show was hokey, but

While Palin’s straight-at-the-camera bragging was to be both expected and ignored (“This is what has given me a desire to be tough and independent”), it was difficult to resist the charms of her father as he said proudly, “I’m glad I raised her that way.”

How does this image reflect back what we'd like to be ourselves? Bonding with family? Check. Outdoorsy? Check. Tough? Independent? Straight-talkin' (droppin' them final G's)? Yep.

Next question. How does President Obama present a slogan, a focus we can relate to? Hope? Change? Shooting baskets on Saturday morning? What if it's not just Palin? What if they all do it?

When U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, met defeated Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulis after the election, why did they have a beer at a famous tavern on Michigan Avenue in Chicago? What image did that project? What, if anything, did it have to do with public policy issues facing the U.S. Senate?