Donald Trump stormed onto the political scene as the realization of the obscene figure of enjoyment that Slavoj Zizek associates with the decline of “symbolic efficiency.” The symptoms of this decline include the debunking of representation associated with a fragmented and conspiracy-theory-ridden public sphere coupled with attempts to resuscitate direct access to the “real.” Reality TV is one cultural manifestation of this combination and Trump has become its political avatar. The demagoguery and resurgent forms of political violence associated with Trump’s campaign demonstrate the authoritarian tendencies of this combination.
AndrejevicMark. 2004. Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched. Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield.
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BenjaminWalterJenningsMichael WilliamDohertyBrigid. 2008. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
