What the hell does Paris Hilton know about politics?
In our last class, we talk in length with Carol Darr about influentials. During this discussion we centered mostly on political influentials. However, it was made clear that these influentials are not just political, but social as well.
When it comes to influentials outside the Beltway I cannot help but think about people like Paris Hilton and other individuals that set the trends for the rest of us. Many of the social influentials, however, have little if any political experience. It was at this point in my thinking that I began to realize that influentials do not go through a screening process. In effect, these are people who are opinionated and share those opinions with others. But just because they are opinionated does not mean that their opinions are accurate or even justified.
NOTES TO PONDER: Do most influentials have political experience? Do they need it? Should we be weary of wrongly informed influentials?
2 Comments:
That is such an interesting point to bring up. Paris has such a huge following. An interesting point about her is that she participated in the "Vote or Die" campaign that P. Diddy put together and actively stated her support for Sen. Kerry, but when it came time to vote she didn't even vote. Her excuse-I forgot or some crap like that.
Yet Americans hang on her every word and action and think it's cool. I think we as voters need to be more careful in who we deem influentials.
6:18 PM
I think the immense failure of P.Diddy (he didn't vote either) and Paris Hilton's 'Vote or Die' campaign goes to show you that people listen to different sources for different things. I know people who I would ask for advice on dating, or dressing whose eyes would glaze over if I asked them about politics. Just as a lot of my friends ask me about politics but not a single one of them asks me about fashion sense, except to probe into my complete lack of it. The problem isn't that young people look to Paris Hilton as a political influential, the problem is that they don't look to anybody for political influence because they don't give a crap. If P.Diddy and P. Hilton were so politically influential (I will through MTV in there as well) why was young voter turnout as abysmal as it always is?
12:10 AM
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