Friday, November 6, 2015

Blog #8: Pop Culture and Politics


For my pop culture representation, I decided to use the Democratic Debate Cold Open SNL skit. In this video, Martin O'Malley is clearly presented as a less important democratic candidate. The opening line of the skit O'Malley's character says, "Hello, I'm Martin O'Malley. This is what my voice sounds like, this is what my face looks like. When I was Mayor of Baltimore, I did such a good job they made two TV shows about my city, 'Homocide' and "The Wire,'". Per usual, the skit exaggerates several things that are commonly talked about when Martin O'Malley's name comes up; the face that he is not well known, he was such a "great" Mayor of Baltimore, that he inspired a character in the TV show "The Wire", and that he has a bad rep for his tough on crime principles. Furthermore in the skit, O'Malley hardly talks at all. His ending line is, "America, I know I may not have been much to listen to tonight,". 

 
Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: Giving a Speech


This artifact (SNL skit) pushes back against the image the candidate seems to be wanting to create for himself because it is just illustrating the same facts over and over again. It is proving to be impossible for O'Malley to escape the image of being too tough on crime, of inspiring a TV character, and of not being very important. Everything I read that is not directly put out by O'Malley's campaign just points out those same things over and over (sorry this is probably so repetitive because I discuss it in every blog, that's how prominent it is). The image O'Malley is wanting to create is that he is experienced and he can get things done. The media or pop culture on the other hand, does not want to focus on this. This artifact definitely does not shape or change the image O'Malley is trying to project, but it should! It is time for O'Malley to do something different to get talked about.

Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: A quote from said speech
 As always, I have been keeping up with O'Malley's SnapChat and have posted the pictures on his story from yesterday through out my blog post. I do not know who runs O'Malley's SnapChat, but they probably think I am super weird because I am constantly screenshoting every image and video they post. It worked out well that he posted an update that coincides with this blog post, because I think this is a cool way to compare how pop culture wants to represent O'Malley, and how O'Malley's campaign wants to represent him. His presence on snap chat is always very causal and always present him interacting with the public in a fun and causal way. In one image, O'Malley is singing and playing guitar for the crowd (evidently after giving a speech) and then arm wrestling in another. Kind of strange if you ask me, but this seems to be the reoccurring theme throughout his presence on SnapChat.
 
Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: O'Malley singing and playing guitar

 If you are interested in following Martin O'Malley on SnapChat his username is "governoromalley". I would highly recommend it because you get to see images like these which in a way, allow you to get to know his personality.
Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: O'Malley arm wrestling




3 comments:

  1. Good blog McKinlea! I agree that this clip makes your candidate look weak as do most SNL clips. While it may be funny to us it does hurt his image and how hard he and others have worked. Do you think he would ever go on a pop culture show to improve his kind of image? BTW love the snaps!

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  2. I agree that the SNL skit didn't really give any information on O'Malleys issues but more on him just being a candidate that is in the shadow of Clinton and Sanders. The fact that he's on snap chat is interesting, considering how much it has grown over the past years. Do you think that O'Malley has any chance of getting his name out and policies, instead of being just another candidate?

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  3. Good post. I feel as if the skit did not make a huge impact on the nations view with O'Malley. Personally, I believe they were just downplaying the people behind the front runner. I, also, added O'Malley on snapchat and find it interesting that he posts somewhat frequent.

    Shane J

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