The evolution of political messaging into the digital age
Marketplace Tech
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 June 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It feels like eons ago, but during a town hall on violence in America in 1994, then-President Bill Clinton took to MTV to reach the nation’s youth. Clinton’s openness to MTV and what The New York Times called “other unconventional media” had helped pave his path to the White House two years earlier. Fast-forward to today, and even reluctant politicians use TikTok to reach younger voters — President Joe Biden is no exception. His first post came just ahead of this year’s Super Bowl. We invited Marketplace’s senior Washington correspondent, Kimberly Adams, and Joshua Scacco, professor of political communication and director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy at the University of South Florida, to discuss the evolution of political messaging with Marketplace’s Lily Jamali. Scacco said Clinton’s MTV moment informed how future presidents, including his successor, George W. Bush, have engaged with Americans.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Political messaging through the ages. |
| 0:04.0 | From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. |
| 0:08.0 | I'm Lelie It feels like eons ago, but back in 1994 at a town hall on violence in America, then President Bill Clinton took |
| 0:26.4 | to MTV to reach the youth. |
| 0:29.2 | A Q&A yielded this exchange. |
| 0:31.8 | Mr President, the world's dying to know is it boxes or briefs. |
| 0:44.0 | Clinton's openness to MTV and what the New York Times called at the time |
| 0:48.7 | other unconventional media had helped pave his path to the White House two years earlier. |
| 0:54.8 | Fast forward to today and even the reluctant politician is on Tik-Tok to reach that younger |
| 1:00.7 | demo. |
| 1:01.7 | President Joe Biden is no exception. His first post came just |
| 1:05.4 | ahead of this year's Super Bowl. Game or commercials? Game or halftime show. |
| 1:10.5 | Game. Jason Kelsey or Travis Kelsey. |
| 1:13.0 | Mama Kelsey. |
| 1:14.0 | The United States has great chocolate chip cookies. |
| 1:16.0 | Here to discuss the evolution of political messaging is Marketplace's senior Washington correspondent Kimberly Adams. |
| 1:22.0 | Welcome back, Kimberly. |
| 1:23.6 | How you doing? |
| 1:24.6 | Good, Lily, thanks for bringing me back. |
| 1:26.4 | Glad to have you on. |
| 1:27.6 | So Kimberly, politicians have for a long time |
| 1:31.0 | had to adapt to technology to reach voters. So for more on this we called |
... |
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