Video Killed the Social Media Star - by Kevin Munger

The two 2024 Presidential Debates have proven the continued centrality of television to our electoral system. Despite all of the hype around digital campaigns conducted on social media, television still moves the needle. This is in part the result of Boomer Ballast — but not entirely. The Trump-Biden debate is one of the most important media events in American political history. No amount of social media posting could achieve the coordination that ensued from this two-hour event and resulted in the epochal decision by Biden to step aside from the race. The second debate provided answers to just “who Kamala Harris is” — and that she can “hold her own against Donald Trump.” Thousands of memes and outrages have come and gone since her nomination, none of them remembered like this debate will be. Now, that’s not really who Kamala Harris “is”—it is obviously fake, in fact. But it is fake in a way that we can all recognize, from having been trained to understand the logic of television. It

The two 2024 Presidential Debates have proven the continued centrality of television to our electoral system. Despite all of the hype around digital campaigns conducted on social media, television still moves the needle. This is in part the result of Boomer Ballast — but not entirely. The Trump-Biden debate is one of the most important media events in American political history. No amount of social media posting could achieve the coordination that ensued from this two-hour event and resulted in the epochal decision by Biden to step aside from the race. The second debate provided answers to jus