Essay: Donald Trump media (Case Study Final Paper)

For the Case Study Final Paper, I have decided to research Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the current President of The United States, and he is one of the most well-known people that United States has ever had in office. With that being said Donald Trump is also one of the most controversial presidents in history. Trump’s relationship with interactive media is mutually beneficial since he has benefited from its platforms in the same way he has benefited them. This is focus of paper.
Donald Trump, also known as Donald John Trump, he was born June 14th, 1946 in Queens, New York. Trump was the fourth of five children of his father Frederick Christ Trump, who was a successful, millionaire builder and real estate developer. His mother Mary MacLeod was a Scottish immigrant who initially worked as a maid prior to her marriage with Frederick Trump. When it was time for Trump to attend school, he attended the Kew-Forest School from kindergarten through seventh grade. Once he turned 13 his parents thought it would be best for him to be enrolled in the New York Military Academy. After attending those institutes in his younger life, he chose to get his higher education at Fordham University in 1964. Two years into Fordham, he decided to transfer to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to purse a Science degree in Economics, where he graduated in 1968.
Prior to presidency, Donald Trump worked for his family real estate company as a chairman and president a few years after graduating college. The company focused on building or renovating office towers, hotels, casinos, and even golf courses all over New York. It was founded in 1923 by his father and grandmother. The family business was originally known as Elizabeth Trump and Son and is now known as The Trump Organization. A few years later, Donald Trump’s career started taking off when he opened the Grand Hyatt New York in 1980, that eventually made him the city’s best-known developer. Growing up around his father’s fortune and fame, it was something that Trump loved and wanted to continue for himself. Not only was he the chairman and president for his family’s business, but he started to make appearances on television shows like The Apprentice, and The Celebrity Apprentice. This fame and fortune followed Trump into the twenty first century as social and interactive media rapidly grew. Being such a powerful influence, Trump naturally gained a large following on these platforms which in-turn gave him even more power. It is this large following and giant interactive media presence that has helped Trump gain opportunities even as large as helping him win the presidential race. Trump’s relationship with interactive media is mutually beneficial since he has benefited from its platforms in the same way he has benefited them.
Since Using social media, Trump’s image has become more controversial, but it has gained him more attention and made him more well known. Trump’s most used form of social media is twitter, and it is on this platform that he has created his “controversial” image. Trump first joined twitter in 2009 and overtime has gained over 56 million followers. One of Trump’s most well-known tweets is one he tweeted May 31st 2017 that stated “who can figure out “covfefe” ??? enjoy”.  It is cryptic messages like these that make Trump’s tweets hard to ignore and gain him more attention and press. Trump has also tweeted about controversial subjects such as Hillary Clinton, North Korea, and porn stars. During the race to presidential election, Trump “subtweeted” multiple candidates and other politicians, thus starting the controversy over social media use as a potential world leader. Since joining office Trumps social media usage has become even more controversial and he has tweeted over 2,601 times since being sworn in. Since becoming president Trump has tweeted about Hillary clinton 83 times, fake news 184 times, and MAGA 104 times. To provide a good example of his controversial social media usage since being considered a world leader, on October 7, 2017 Trump tweeted “Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid … hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!”. This kind of statement by a President or highly regarded figure would usually be seen as reckless or ignorant, however because of the nature and laid-back environment of interactive media platforms such as twitter, this tweet was somewhat overlooked because it was not on traditional media forms. It is statements like these that has put Trump in the press for his social media use rather than his political agenda and made his image more controversial.
It is hard to state exactly why Trump chooses to be so controversial on his social media platforms, but his platforms followers and social experts alike have assumed that it is a way for him to gain attention and control the news and media cycle.  George Lakoff, a cognitive science expert and professor at University of California Berkeley stated in a recent interview, “Trump uses social media as a weapon to control the news cycle. It works like a charm. His tweets are tactical rather than substantive”. Later in the interview Lakoff continues to explain how it is the controversial subject matter within his social media that allows him to control the news cycle because it shifts the platform of political content from traditional media to interactive media sites in which users like himself have the power. These social media sites have allowed Trump to connect to society on a more personal platform that allows him to communicate without a filter unlike traditional media forms that Trump has expressed in the past he does not trust.  Richard Perloff, a communication and political science professor at Cleveland State University studied Trump’s social media use and stated “he not only tweets, but the media then writes about those tweets. And the mainstream media – despite his criticism of it – gives him a degree of legitimacy” thus reinforcing the idea that Trump tweets to gain attention and have some power over the media cycle. Most of the content Trump tweets about is more of a personal opinion or statement rather than a legitimate white house formal statement. In other words, most of the content on Trump’s social media account is posted on his own accord and not screened or ghost written. We can clearly see this with some of his misspelled words like “covefe” and other grammatical errors that have been caught in the past and later deleted. As controversial as his social media use maybe it has been made clear that Trump has a method to his madness and that it has had an impact on society.
Trumps interactive media platforms have ultimately changed the way in which political information is shared in America. Most people have considered Trumps interaction on media platforms as the most important aspect of his candidacy, no other president has dominated interactive media the way Trump has done so due to his controversial tweets and extremely active posting habits. Because of this interactive media platform in America have become a legitimate source of important news, where as traditional media forms have lost some of their credibility and have been regarded as a source of “fake news”. Brendan Brown is a social media analyst who runs a Twitter archive which holds all of Trump’s tweets since being sworn into office. Brown states that not only has his social media usage shifted the political platform in American but “He’s definitely made Twitter an indispensable resource,” he added. “The world’s most powerful man regularly shares his innermost thoughts, thoughts which all other world leaders keep private.”  Although twitter is only one form of interactive media, it is one of the most widely used one with over 336 million interactive users, and it is Trump’s most used and controversial platform, therefore it is the most important one to consider when analyzing Trump’s relationship with interactive media.
It is celebrities and world leaders like Trump that have affected the way in which journalism and interactive media have been seen in America.  Interactive media sources are now being seen as a credible source of important information in America and citizens are relying less and less on typical media sources and journalists. Without interactive media Trump may be seen as a less controversial figure, and without Trump interactive media may not be as highly regarded as it is now. Interactive media gives users like Trump a voice so that we as citizens of the United States can make the media agenda what we want it to be and changed the world of journalism for the better.
One of the most popular forms of interactive media at the moment is twitter which has more than 336 million interactive users. Trump first joined twitter in 2009 and overtime has gained over 56 million followers. Although Trump has used twitter to make controversial statements about women, politicians, and other arguable topics, his presence on twitter ultimately helped him win the presidential race, and regarded him as the “Modern Day President”. During the Presidential election Trump had 11.6 million followers and 381 million google search results, while Hillary Clinton had 8.8 million followers and 259 million google search results. It was this interactive media presence that made him more known, more respected, and more appealing to certain people and generations during the election.
The main role of media is to inform the public on all issues especially those regarding leadership, politics and policy, and therefore interactive media is no exception. Due to this, according to white house secretary Sean Spencer, Trumps tweets are officially considered “official statements of the President of the United States”.  It is this dynamic role on interactive media that has changed political communication within the United States. Most people have considered Trumps interaction on media platforms as the most important aspect of his candidacy, no other president has dominated interactive media the way Trump has done so due to his controversial tweets and extremely active posting habits. To provide a good example of his tweeting style, on October 7, 2017 Trump tweeted “Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid … hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!”. This kind of statement by a President or highly regarded figure would usually be seen as reckless or ignorant, however because of the nature and laid back environment of interactive media platforms such as Twitter, this tweet was somewhat overlooked because it was not on traditional media forms. Trump tweets things like this in order to gain “shareability”, meaning that he considers any press he gets to be good press, interactive media is just another way for him to gain attention. A recent study recorded by Data strategy technology, estimated Trump’s earned media value to be more than $2 billion dollars.
In conclusion, Trump has managed to morph the world of politics and social platforms through his use of interactive media. His presence on platforms like twitter has gained him popularity and attraction, all while attracting more users to the platforms themselves. Trump’s relationship with interactive media so far has been mutually exclusive and has allowed him to make his mark on the interactive world.