US Presidential Election: Red Carpet for Influencers Enrages Journalists

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“The convention considers content creators as allies and the press is not part of it.” Interviewed by AFP, journalist Benjamin Zamora summed up in one sentence a trend observed during the American presidential campaign.

A cocktail offered on a yacht for influencers

In fact, influencers were particularly pampered during the Democratic convention that just ended in Chicago. More than 200 videographers received accreditation for this event, while five of them even spoke at the podium. This is the case of Carlos Eduardo Espina from Texas.

@carlos_eduardo_espina

Que viva nuestro hermoso país 👏🏼❤️

♬ original sound – Carlos_Eduardo_Espina

The latter, who has more than 10 million subscribers on TikTok, does not hide his joy: “It's really amazing that they gave us this opportunity. We got to see Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and that 8217;is like… Wow. We feel like we don't deserve to be in the same room as them’ but in fact yes!”

Ahead of the convention, the Democratic Party even hosted a cocktail party on a yacht with hand-picked influencers to pitch campaign themes. A dedicated section for videographers to help them follow the convention was also set up for the first time. At the same time, party officials were scrambling to help them secure interviews.

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On the other side, journalists had to make do with traditional press rooms located outside the main venue. They also complained about long lines and admission fees that were difficult for smaller or independent outlets to afford. Worse, Kamala Harris has not held a single press conference since launching her candidacy a month ago.

Enough to infuriate the Standing Committee of Correspondents. Quoted by Business Insider, this representative body of political journalists does not mince its words:

We fear that the decision to reduce by hundreds the number of dedicated and accessible workspaces compared to previous conventions will hamper the ability of journalists to cover the historic nature of this convention.

Why are influencers so pampered??

Indeed, the reasons for this preferential treatment for influencers do not have to be far to seek. While they do carry out information work, it is primarily partisan political commentary and not factual journalism. In short, they are much more controllable for campaigns than journalists.

Claimed supporters of the candidates, they are therefore an integral part of their communication. Finally, and this is not a detail, they reach a younger audience that no longer reads traditional media, but finds its sources directly on social networks. Some videographers have therefore developed their own brand in their own name and their audience exceeds, in some cases, very large traditional media.

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