On December 4th, weeks after the 2016 Presidential election, Edgar Madison Welch entered a Washington D.C. pizzeria armed with an AR-15 rifle and fired multiple times (Fisher et al., 2016). After being detained Welch told officers he “read online the restaurant was harboring child sex slaves and that he wanted to see for himself if they were there” adding that he was armed to help rescue them” (Fisher et al., par. 62, 2016). Beginning with a Wikileaks rumor which claimed to publish the content of Hillary Clinton’s emails, users speculated the words “sauce” and “pizza” were codes used in a sex trafficking and pedophilia ring harbored in the pizzeria basement (Groth, 2019). However bizarre, the rumor went from hashtag, to “pizzagate,” to gunshots after the story gained traction online when former national security advisor, Michael Flynn and international news outlets shared the conspiracy online (Robb, 2017; Groth, 2019). Though “pizzagate” is an extreme example, the scandal functions to provide insights on the intricacies of the political narrative. As political strategist James Carville has noted, “a narrative is the key to everything” (Poletta, p.1, 2008). Therefore, it is crucial to understand how complex political processes can be stripped down to stories.
Political narratives organize the story by providing a clear distinction of who is good or bad and/or who just or corrupt (Maclaughlin & Velez, 2019). Take for example,Trump’s 2016 campaign video of “Two America’s” (Dumenco, 2016). In the advertisement, the narrator asks viewers to envision “Hillary Clinton’s America,” a land where crime is rampant and jobs are dwindling. This is shown parallel to “Donald Trump’s America,” where families are secure and business thrives. By creating this binary, the narrative format functions to reinforce worldviews of those who agree with their message. Polletta (2008) explains though individuals typically process messages with intense scrutiny, there is a tendency to immerse oneself in the story. Be it for entertainment or political purposes, people strive to vicariously live out the emotions and events of the character’s experience (Maclaughlin & Velez, 2019). The narrative works to captivate the audience who are encouraged to view themselves as the central character in the story.
Narratives are powerfully transportive forces. Research explains, this transportation is possible because from a young age people learn to rely on imagination to make sense of their social worlds by gathering information and creating representations of their surroundings (Green & Brook, 2000; Maclaughlin & Velez, 2019). Essentially, because humans learn to imagine in the mind, they can picture themselves taking certain actions or views in reality. Hence, when people confront a political narrative they create a “mental model” to understand that narrative world (Maclaughlin & Velez, p.24, 2019). Take for example a presidential race. In this case, a citizen will create a character representation (the candidate), assess their motivations, and create assumptions for how certain actions (voting for someone) can affect their reality and the larger political realm (Maclaughlin & Velez, p.24, 2019). When individuals engage with mediated political narratives, they (re)construct the model provided by the narrative.
One key to the narrative in the current digital age is its ability to spread online (Maclaughlin & Velez, 2019). Much of the narrative’s force is in how it can get someone who agrees with it to act, or in the online case, how it can get someone to “share”. The more a story is disseminated, the more people try to make sense of it in computer mediated and face-to-face communication. Further, the more frequent a message is seen, the more likely someone is to believe the information is true (Pennycook & Rand, 2019). Simply put, people aren’t likely to believe a false narrative because they are particularly gullible, rather it is how often they are inundated with a message and how open minded they are to receiving it. As Groth (2019) highlights, this is especially problematic as “in its most radical form the motivation to act can take the shape of a shooter intruding into the alleged sex traficking headquarters in the basement of the pizzeria with an assault rifle, seeking to directly fight the conspiracy” (p.2).
Liberal and conservative voters are both vulnerable to a good story (Pennycook & Rand, 2019; Harper & Baguley, 2019). Generally, people are more likely to believe narratives they are familiar with (Harper & Baguley, 2019; Polletta, 2008). When individuals are transported into a story they don’t concern themselves with critically evaluating beliefs rather, they are focused on the transportive experience; Instead they ask, “Can I picture myself in this narrative?” (Maclaughlin & Velez, 2019; Polletta, 2008). Liberals and conservatives approach political narratives similarly. Harper and Baguley (2019) find people on both sides of the traditional right-left divide are equally likely to believe political stories that are in line with their current ideologies, and cast aside narratives that are inconsistent with their views. In either case, narcissism plays a pivotal role in whether or not someone will initially choose to believe and be transported into the narratives presented; there is a stronghold on political beliefs (Harper & Baguley, 2019). When someone can envision themselves in a narrative the more successful the story becomes as a strategy for engaging in politics.
As audience members feel like they are directly experiencing an unfolding story that speaks to their ideology, they are prone to welcome and internalize the views of reality offered by the narrative. Rather than engaging in a critical evaluation of information, transported individuals tend to readily adopt the depicted attitudes and experiences as their own (Maclaughlin & Velez, 2019). That is, immersed partisans internalize the story line, characters, and causal relationships as an accurate reflection of their own reality. As the American Presidential race is underway, it is crucial that we (re)examine the stories deeply embedded in US politics. Groth (2019) points out, “great writers don’t write simple stories. They write stories that tap into our expectations and defy them.” (p. 30). This election season, political writers continue to construct narrative models in an attempt to reel in potential voters. While storytelling remains at the helm American politics it is crucial to ask, what would happen if the fights seen in the political arena were based on real action instead of character narratives? What would happen if we refuse to tell stories at all?
Keywords: Action, Narrative, Storytelling, Imagination, Transportation
Work Cited
Dumenco, S. (2016, August). New Trump TV ad: ‘In Hillary Clinton’s America, hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear. Advertising Age. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/trump-tv-ad-clinton-samerica-jobs-disappear/305640/
Fisher, M., Woodrow Cox, J., Hermann, P. (2016). From rumor, to hashtag, to gunfire in DC, Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html
Green, M. C., Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 701–721. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701
Groth, S. (2019). Political Narratives/Narrations of the Political, Narrative Culture. (6)1, 1-18, doi: 128.122.149.96
Harper, C., Baguley, T. (2019). You are fake news: Ideological (A)symmetries in Perceptions of Media Legitimacy. Doi: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ym6t5
Maclaughlin B., Velez, J.A. (2019) Imagined politics: How different media platforms transport citizens into political narratives. Social Science Computer Review, (37)1, 22-37. Doi: 10.1177/0894439317746327
Pennycook, G., Rand., D. (2019). Who falls for fake news? The roles of bullshit receptivity, overclaiming, familiarity, and analytic thinking. Journal of Personality. 1-64. Doi: 10.1111/jopy12476
Robb, A. (2017). Anatomy of a fake news scandal, Rolling Stone. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-125877/