Donald Trump: Can he be stopped?

          As the whole world is well aware Donald Trump has been the front-runner for the GOP in 2016 Presidential race. What is beyond amazing is that despite all the negative press and political attacks on him and the fact that he has only spent $2 million of his own dollars on the campaign compared to the astronomical numbers of the other candidates, Trump continues to lead the polls and the hearts of many. There are many who credit Trump’s success with the amount of media coverage he is receiving and I would like to dig deeper and find out if it is true which I think it is. The media’s coverage of Trump has been fuel for the Trump campaign because Trump is leading the polls despite strong opposition from the GOP, countless attacks have done little if anything to slow him down or bring down poll numbers, and despite positive or negative press he still continues his relentless march up the polls. While it may be difficult to pinpoint what makes Donald J. Trump so attractive to the media and the people, my research will attempt to answer why Donald Trump has become the media/political spectacle he is today.

My project will take the form of a research paper for which I am still gathering sources on media theory to further understand the logistics of how media/PR works and how they affect politics/popularity of people. I think to help put this whole Trump thing perspective I’ll compare and contrast this campaign with others in the past that were similar perhaps the George Wallace or Ross Perot campaign but that is still up for discussion.  I am currently looking at various sources of information regarding both Mr. Trump and the theoretical aspects of what is occurring. I hope to be able to find a concrete answer to the spectacle that is Donald Trump. I think my research will also show some insight on the importance of convergence and how media convergence when used in just the right way can be a very powerful weapon. But I want it to be more than just an analysis on media and Trump. I guess you could say this paper is a front to promote Trump and his campaign in a fair light and help garner more supporters. I’m hoping if I can pull this off properly and get it published in the right places, it might change public opinion towards Trump. You could say this is targeted at the non-believers out there. I’m doing this research to educate and enlighten those who don’t understand how the political process works, for those who lost faith in our government, but I think most importantly it’s for those people who think they are media literate but have yet to realize mainstream media is bamboozling them with the things they want you to hear which may be heavily distorted or misleading.

As I mentioned earlier I’m still looking at/for information and sources.  Based on the syllabus, plan to work in an efficient fashion leaving plenty of time for corrections and revisions by the time this thing is due.  So I plan to finish the current stage of researching and gathering sources by next week. 10/31. I will try to have a rough draft maybe two weeks after that and then a final draft just in time for thanksgiving break. It’s easier said than done but lets see what happens. I’m not exactly sure where or how I’m going to publish it, I haven’t thought that far ahead but I guess I’ll have to shop around some political blogs/ websites, or even some kind of political science journal but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

         I guess the big question is why am I doing this? Well, I’m passionate about politics and frankly I was like a lot of people where I sort of wrote off Trump’s campaign as a joke. But then something happened, I’m not quite sure how it happened but slowly I began to understand him and what he was about. As I became more intrigued I saw how this one man had the guts to stand up against the GOP (Grand Ole Political Machine), and he is winning. It was also a little disturbing to see what political parties can do when things turn desperate. With the topic at hand I think my research would be important on a limited scale. Obviously, media scholars might find it of interest to further understand the growing relationship between media, PR, and the audience. On the other hand political activists might find this to be useful in their analysis of the 2016 race and the candidates but also allow them to step back and look at the big picture of campaigning as well.

        The last two questions might be the most difficult to answer but in my opinion they are the least important. I’m not exactly sure where this would fit in to my portfolio but I think as a media professional and someone looking to get in to broadcasting, writing scholarly articles and critiquing the very industry might actually be helpful in building a reputation as a professional in the rather than strictly working on video production. The second question which I think I touch on throughout this proposal is how I will be taking advantage of convergence and I think I will be doing that on two levels. I will be looking at politics in various mediums and how they work together to strengthen a campaign but also as I have included in the post, I added a video dimension to it but I think that will be for the proposal only.

Bibliography:

1. "How the Media Is Fueling Donald Trump's Campaign." NBC News. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

2. David, Folkenflik. "Donald Trump Escalates His Fight With The Media." Morning Edition (NPR) (2015): Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

3. "Trump Campaign: Donald's New Reality Show?; Seeing 2016 Throughlatin Media Lens; Excluse Look At Harper Lee Documentary; Berniesanders Surges; Reddit Shake-Up. Aired 11A-12P ET." CNN Reliable Sources (n.d.): Points of View Reference Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

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14. Cox, John. "Can We Please Stop Blaming the Media for Donald Trump?" Washington Post. The Washington Post. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

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