The View doesn't mean you're not going to see Barack Obama onĬonservatives have complained about Obama's "Ĭelebrity" factor since he emerged on the national scene. "Just because you're not in the demographic that watches "He goes on things to collect these different demographics, and most people end up seeing every one of them," says Thompson, the Syracuse professor. You didn't have to watch the Fallon show to have the video of the first lady dancing forwarded to you. The View, anything he says may echo loudly on news broadcasts and online. But when Obama tries to talk to young people via social media, or to women by going on That highlights a problem maybe only presidents have.Īn author touting a book or an actress promoting her film will appear on as many shows as possible, to get the message out.
But when Obama took questions on the social media site last August, more than 5 million people read theĭiscussion and it was covered heavily by traditional media. Reddit, for example, didn't exist until 2005. This dynamic might seem exaggerated with President Obama, if only because he's in power at a time when the number of media outlets has just exploded. Anthony, author of several books about first ladies and the White House. "In the context of the popular culture of the 1930s and 1940s, Eleanor Roosevelt was everywhere - on the radio, in newspapers and magazines," says Carl S. Presidents and first ladies have been celebrities throughout American history. In a sense, there's nothing new about what the Obamas are doing.
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"They're over every TV at the gym, whether you wanted to tune into politics or not."
"There is a point at which you cannot get away from the president or the first family," says Gene Healy, a Cato Institute vice president and author ofįalse Idol: Barack Obama and the Continuing Cult of the Presidency. "You get this sense that you can't turn on the television without one of the Obamas on it," Thompson says.Īfter first lady Michelle Obama appeared on the Oscars, just a couple of days after dancing with Jimmy Fallon in a performance that went viral, even fans of the Obamas thought there could be a chance that familiarity could breed disquiet, if not contempt. It's no longer enough to grant interviews to the anchors of the major broadcast networks.Īmerican Idolor a Super Bowl halftime show, this is just a president in the modern era trying to talk to a whole constituency of audiences by going all over the place," says Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.īut Obama has been eager and willing to appear in so many different forums that it raises the question of whether it's possible, in the modern media age, for even a president to become overexposed. President Obama, in particular, seems to be fond of appearing in as many pop culture venues as possible, whether it'sĪ lot of that has to do with chasing after a fractured viewing public wherever it can be found. When just about any major event occurs - whether it's a downturn in the unemployment rate, a natural disaster or some crisis overseas - much of the news media ask how it's going to play out for the president, the central actor in our national drama.īut then there are additional moments when the president injects himself into non-news contexts. The president is always the star of the show. Doesn't the president get enough attention?
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