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Authenticity and Carrier Agents: The Social Construction of Political Gaffes
Author(s) -
Sheinheit Ian,
Bogard Cynthia J.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
sociological forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1573-7861
pISSN - 0884-8971
DOI - 10.1111/socf.12292
Subject(s) - politics , meaning (existential) , sociology , narrative , democracy , event (particle physics) , representation (politics) , salient , political communication , presidential system , media studies , social media , political science , epistemology , public relations , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
Political campaigns require constant performance from politicians. This presents ample opportunity for the occurrence of political gaffes. While it is not surprising that political gaffes can have a major impact on political campaigns, the process by which a gaffe is transformed into a meaning‐laden defining campaign event is underanalyzed. To address this, we analyze and reconstruct the media trajectory of three instances, two involving Senate candidates (George Allen and Todd Akin) and one a presidential candidate (Mitt Romney), in which gaffes were constructed into meaning‐laden events. We find that constructing a political gaffe as a meaning‐laden event is a deeply social process. Our research highlights the impact of sousveillance (surveillance from below) and the difficulty that political performers have maintaining consistent “authentic” performances. Recounting the trajectories of these three gaffes allows for a detailing of the diverse methods by which the hybrid media system was effectively mobilized by “carrier agents” (actors with narrative capacity and media know‐how). Further, we find that these gaffes proved particularly salient because they were interpreted as embodying an authentic representation of the candidate while simultaneously violating emergent norms of inclusive democratic public discourse.