Academics at Washington State University have discovered something that may not be very profound. Celebrities are quite successful in persuading young people to turn out and vote.
The survey found that get-out-the-vote pitches by celebrities in the 2004 election cycle helped create an 11 percent increase in voting by people between the ages of 18 and 24, compared to the 2000 election."It suggests that we can make use of celebrity culture to get students engaged," said Erica Austin, a co-author of the study and dean of the school. "They want to be like celebrities."
Austin’s team found that "celebrities have the power to motivate civic engagement regardless of their own grasp of the issues at hand." It’s easy to question the political savvy of musicians like P. Diddy or Christina Aguilera. Oprah Winfrey’s big primary push for Barack Obama gushed through the news and spilled over at the ballot box, even if her speeches on his behalf vaguely touted him as "The One" and sounded like a goopy New Age chat. He was "an evolved leader" and "we're all here to evolve as human beings."
Austin’s team also found that celebrities make their fans more idealistic about the political process: "Appeals based on wishful identification with celebrities can increase young adults’ belief that participation can make a difference."
The one twist in this study? Young people don’t necessarily vote for the candidate celebrities might endorse, meaning Oprah may have turned out some Hillary voters, or even some Romney or McCain voters.
The Washington State findings mirror a 2004 study by Natalie Wood, an expert on celebrity endorsements in politics at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. "They are not an influence in swaying the vote," Wood said. "Telling me to vote is one thing, but telling me who to vote for is different." Family and friends have a greater influence over actual voting decisions, she says.
If celebrities can move young people not just to buy their music and movies, not just to troll the malls looking for their officially authorized fashion lines, not just to change the slang they use, but to get out of the house or the dorm and vote, then why is it preposterous to suggest that these same celebrities can weaken the magnetism of the moral compass in the young? What a Christina Aguilera or P. Diddy defines as cool on MTV can often take hold overnight in high school hallways and college student unions. If celebrities have the power to push political mountains, then everybody should acknowledge they have an even greater ability to shape the moral landscape in America.
And any politician seeking their assistance for the sake a few votes is enabling -- and advancing – the culture rot these punks propose.
The Obama campaign released a new video on October 21, in which the rapper known as Jay-Z urged viewers to participate in the process. "I want all my people in Michigan to go out and vote," he said. "I need you to vote November 4," he says, calling this "the most important election that will happen probably in your lifetime."
At a Los Angeles concert on October 16, Jay-Z wowed his audience by dedicating his song "99 Problems" to John McCain and his "homegirl" Sarah Palin, explaining that he was referring to "the one who says ‘You betcha.’" This is the same song that was controversial earlier this year when Obama was running against Hillary, since its signature line is "I got 99 problems but a [B-word] ain't one." Jay-Z is not a celebrity who usually builds enthusiasm about government, since the song also has an entire verse about being racially profiled by the "mother f–ing law" for "doing 55 in a 54."
Doesn’t the concept of a civic-minded gangsta-rapper strike anyone as odd? More to the point: If we are to conclude that a fragment of his message devoted to politics has the power to move thousands to the polls, what does this say about the power of his everyday, every-disc message – the celebration of the violent gangster culture – on the young?
Even though many people cite the moral decline of America as a major reason why the country is "moving in the wrong direction," this is another presidential-election season where neither the Republican nor the Democrat has dared to offer any political commentary on the sorry state of our popular culture. No debate moderator has found it worth discussing. But millions of Americans are still looking for someone, somewhere from Hollywood to Washington who actually sees our "entertainment" as a social problem, and our celebrities as worthy of criticism and not lock-step idolatry.
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Comments Policy
So they said,
October 23, 2008 - 16:11 ET by NorthCoasterObama was the 'Beloved Leader" ? Oh, sorry the "Beloved Leader" is Kim Jong Il of N. Korea. Hmmm, makes one think doesn't it?
An evolved leader means exactly what, constantly changing? Sounds about right ,because he has done little that anyone can pin him down on since he got into politics. He's constantly changing positions like a chameleon changes colors to match its surroundings.
Defining Obama
October 23, 2008 - 16:33 ET by Utherpend"He's constantly changing positions like a chameleon changes colors to match its surroundings."
Isn't that what Liberals call multifacited??
Hugh Hewitt on CNN!!!!! LMAO!!!!
October 23, 2008 - 16:33 ET by krendlerAnybody catch this? He completely $h*t all over CNN and Obama right in Blitzer's face. He even managed to use the word "alcoholic" and "Jack Cafferty" in the same sentence (with Cafferty, I'm sure, sitting nearby watching).
Absolutely priceless!
kren... Dang...I quit
October 23, 2008 - 16:41 ET by bigtimerkren...
Dang...I quit watching CNN for the most part...wished I would of seen that though...if there is a link later...hope someone posts it...that had to be precious.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Oprh, Oprah,Oprah,
October 23, 2008 - 16:40 ET by IamTinmanOprah, Dear I am not here to evolve into anything. I am here because my daddy got a gleam in his eye and my mom wasn't fast enough to get away.
At any rate how I got here isn't important. It's what I do while I'm here and who I do it with.
See Brent, this is exactly
October 23, 2008 - 16:46 ET by TN MomSee Brent, this is exactly why I raised my children to 'be their own person' and not blindly follow others. What parent, in their right mind, would want their child to follow Jay-Z's verse about being racially profiled by the "mother f–ing law" for "doing 55 in a 54."
I wish you could meet my children, Brent. They are well-grounded, GOOD children and...they are a TON of FUN and have a TON of friends just like them! I can't think of a SINGLE celebrity personality who has anything whatsoever in common with my kids. Celebrities are just for entertainment.
...the hard road is the road less traveled.
well
October 23, 2008 - 17:18 ET by boozyquess that pretty well explains why this country is falling apart...the kids today if indeed are taking this idiots in hollyweird to heart will eventually end up in slavery....sad..sad..sad...the Oprah monster is without question a truly negative element in the culture of the american people....god help us....
Somehow, I won the lottery
October 23, 2008 - 17:59 ET by soulpileSomehow, I won the lottery with my parents. They brought me up to think for myself and to not blindly follow those like these celebrities. (Also, somehow I ended up extremely stubborn and anti-establishment/popularity... so following the media is basically abhorrent.) What's that phrase? "Shut up and sing?" How appropriate. I remember watching MTV in 2000 and thinking that their insistence that their viewers vote was a thinly veiled attempt at getting young voters to vote Democrat.
What was that other one? "Vote or Die." Yeah... that'll make me vote Democrat... Not. I don't like intimidation. I couldn't wait to reach voting age so I could fight back.
Soul
October 23, 2008 - 18:21 ET by TN MomYour parents sound like good people to me!
The problem in our society really lies at the feet of the parents. Parents are supposed to well, parent. You know, hold the child to account, stress good manners, responsibility, etc. Parenting is hard work and I know a good number of parents who shirk their responsibilities to the detriment of the child. They want to be the childs friend. I enjoyed my kids but my role was not to raise 'popular' children, but to raise my kids to function on their own, stand up for their beliefs/rights, and think for themselves.
That sounds about right.
October 23, 2008 - 18:44 ET by soulpileThat sounds about right. And you know what? By teaching me responsibility, individuality, and values, my parents taught me respect for others. I have no greater friend than my mother, but she's still Mom first, friend second. As parents should be. It is too common nowadays for parents to get that backwards and then wonder why the kids are running around crazy and misbehaving.
It's also why schools have more control over children - the younger generation of parents doesn't know or realize (sometimes doesn't care) what goes on in the schools. In fact, I've heard that schools are supposed to teach kids everything, including manners and respect. Schools are not parents! I think it's this lack of responsibility with which the younger generation has grown up. (I'm talking generally here about the people maybe 10 years older than I am)
Libs Do This Every Year
October 23, 2008 - 18:33 ET by JDWNo increase in first time voters: The libs are targeting the elderly with Social Security and Medicare.
IBD/TIPP poll: Age 18-24 has McCain ahead 53-43
JDW
DAILY WAVE
'Hey Chuck, Stand Up!'
Is the Community Reinvestment Act part of free enterprise
Obama added a work requirement to his proposal
Celebrities Mould Savage Attacks On Women For Obama
October 23, 2008 - 19:43 ET by Lame CherryIt is not just celebrities like David Letterman lighting the savaging of women fuse on Gov. Palin, but Barack Obama himself who is ordering his followers to go out and attack people.
The pathetic and despicable Obama campaign issued this statement today
after they caused a young woman to be beaten and have a letter
carved in her face:
quote
"Our thoughts and prayers are
with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope
that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and
brought to justice."
unquote.
Excuse me Federal
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, are you listening please to this? Barack
Obama ORDERED his campaign workers and supporters to go out and get
into people's faces.
Since Barack Obama issued that order,
people's homes have been shot at, cars keyed, an older woman in New
York had her McCain sign taken, broken and was beat over the head with
it.
This young Lady, Ashley Todd, while working as a volunteer in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania had a knife held to her throat, robbed and when the Obama
supporter found out she had McCain stickers on her car, punched her,
knocked her down and then carved a B into her cheek as he towered over
her.
A 6 feet 4 inch Obama thug, mirroring the brutalization which Obama slapped Hillary around, by Obama's example has now taken it to the streets to beat on a white woman too.
The
worst of this is on the Pittsburgh news site where the pathetic Obama
trolls are saying this was self inflicted or coming up with it was
Sarah Palin in a witch outfit.
The disgusting seared souls of the
Obama campaign not having one ounce of compassion on a young woman
brutalized and they turn around and savage her again.
This is but another example of the criminal jihad that Barack Obama has unleashed on the citizens of the United States.
Obamaniacs
have on the order and blessing of Barack Obama have terrorized United
States citizens. The FBI has refused to do one thing. The major
companies have sheltered these thugs who they employ from Google who
currently is screwing with my blog to Yahoo which censors Obama mail
and Microsoft sending Nigeria phishing
scams ALONG with the Obama campaign allowing their maniacs to sign up
citizens like myself to their mailing lists to be harassed.
I'm not interested in BS statements like are coming out of Kenya or Zimbabwe by Islamocommunist
thugs beating up the electorate. I'm interested in criminal indictment
of Barack Hussein Obama telling his maniacs to go out and get in
people's faces and brutalizing them.
The blood of this is on the right wing media hands from FOX, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity etc.... who were alerted this criminal genesis was starting in the terrorization of Lawrence Sinclair and didn't raise public awareness.
This blood of this young Lady is on Campbell Brown, Keith Olbermann, Katie Couric, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Craig Fergeson, Tina Fey, Chevy Chase, Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams, Charlie Rose, Mark Halperin, David Brooks, Peggy Noonan and whatever else Gov. Palin political rapist trash who have been brutalizing her setting the standard for this Obama thug.
This blood is on the New York Times and Bill Keller for the savaging of Cindy McCain this past week!
Mr. Fitzgerald, PROVE
you are who you say you are and conduct a Grand Jury investigation and
hand indictments down on all of these people who have made a sport of
savaging women for Obama following his instructions and bring justice
to this young woman as so many American have been savaged by this ilk
that none of us has gotten anything but ignored by the media, the major
corporations and then been terrorized by the Obama camp.
How do you like it David Letterman? You didn't get Bristol Palin's fetus to hang on your wall, but you sure got a young girl beaten and carved on just the way you beat up on Sarah Palin and carved on her.
Mr. Fitzgerald. JUSTICE, bring this nation justice as you have Obama's own recorded thuggery sending his maniacs out to attack people and you have all of the above savaging United State's citizens.
Lawrence Sinclair was illegally arrested by Beau Biden and Joe Biden in silencing Lawrence Sinclair was later awarded the Vice Presidential position under Obama.
JUSTICE, Mr. Fitzgerald. Indict Barack Obama as he is responsible for hooking all these social retards to be hooked on Obamics which has then carving on women and beating them over the head.
agtG
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
There's A Cultural Rot?
October 23, 2008 - 23:24 ET by The7SticksActually, the lyric goes, "I've got 99 problems, but the bitch ain't one." (And no, I am not using it in reference to Sarah Palin. I'm not particularly keen on her politics, but I do NOT believe she needs to be insulted that way.) It actually sounds quite ecstatic when you synch it up to the Beatles song Helter Skelter the way Danger Mouse did it on The Grey Album back in 2004. Besides, I thought Jay-Z was too rich to be a gangster rapper. After all, last thing he released is a remix of the Coldplay song "Lost!", which if you listen carefully, it has the same rhythm pattern as "Give Peace a Chance" by John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band. And FYI, I'm a white agnostic Jew, so I know it sounds weird for me to be a fan of Jay-Z. I was pretty much a non-fan until I listened to The Grey Album.
As for the lyric about being pulled over by the police for racial profiling, that's a bit of a stretch. The police does it to white people as well, like me and my parents when I was about nine years old. The only thing I had done wrong was to accompany my parents with them to the bad part of town. We were all put facedown on the pavement because my mother had the unfortunate misfortune of being a drug addict and had a record around the bad parts of town. This simply proves that the police can be corrupt towards anyone, whether you're black or white.
I have a hard time believing that we have a cultural rot right now. We have been told many times before that we had a cultural rot over the decades, whether it was the temperance movement, the censorship of films beginning with the Hayes codes (yeah, I know the golden Age of filmmaking was a result of that, but there were still even further calls for censorship than there had already been set up by the Hayes Codes.), and the so-called menace of the comic book industry in the 1940s - 1950s (the comic strip industry actually had the first bout with the so-called "cultural rot" police in the early 1900s with "The Katzenjammer Kids") As extreme as it may seem to be, have we ever needed the aid of the presidency before to do something about it? The way I see it, I say we should just let this so-called cultural rot takes its course and let the course of nature dictate it. It worked before, so what makes anyone think it won't happen again?