How Far Is Too Far?
For as long as I can remember, politics has created a certain tension that results in subjective or often vulgar comments. The Outrage Industry by Berry and Sobieraj puts into perspective just how outrageous politics can and have been. After reading the article, I realized the presence of outrage politics today. The Wake Forest bus driver this afternoon was even listening to this genre. The radio station was discussing Hillary Clinton’s Chia Pet, which somehow led to the radio personalities discussing how Clinton would appear naked. Although outrageous content in politics has been around for a long time, “in the last twenty-five years this form of commentary has come into its own, as a new genre of political opinion media that we term outrage” (Berry and Sobieraj).
The authors describe this “genre” of outrage as a “discourse [that involves] efforts to provoke emotional responses from the audience” (Berry and Sobieraj). Outrage politics is also “personality centered”, “recognizably reactive,” “engaging,” “marked by internal intertextuality,” and unifying of different parties (Berry and Sobieraj). Lou Dobbs’s commentary, in the video below, achieves many of these qualifications. It provokes a response, is reactive, marked with personality, and can unify parties by encouraging a backlash from the counter party. Dobbs’s piece is just one example of the many political commentaries in the type.
The frequency of this genre has resulted in the creation of something that feels like a “mini-empire” (Berry and Sobieraj). The question is, how far will the industry go? This question is especially pressing for an industry that is “socially embedded and subject to change” (Berry and Sobieraj). Altogether, outrage politics has formed an industry that “has the capacity to influence issue framing” (Berry and Sovieraj). Now, it seems that the genre is constantly testing the waters to see how far is too far. Why are Limbaugh’s critiques of Fluke considered too far, but it seems to be okay to comment on what Hillary Clinton looks like naked? The mini-empire seems to be on its way to destruction if the form of commentary continues to progress in these next few years.
