Crisis in Syria. Government shutdown. Republican civil war. Traditional media outlets such as the New York Times, NPR or CNN have provided extensive coverage of these events, but newer forms of media that combine information and entertainment have proven incredibly popular on the web. Entertainment blogs such as Buzzfeed and Betches Love This have been summarizing current events with GIF images and quotes from movies and television shows, allowing even the most uninformed and unaware American to understand the complicated political relationships between world leaders.
“Ferris Bueller explains the Government Shut Down” takes a convoluted political situation and boils it down to skipping school. Ferris Bueller is Ted Cruz, the Tea Party Senator who tried to defund ObamaCare. Ferris’s friend Cameron is John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House who did not want to support Cruz’s efforts but felt immense political pressure to do so. Ferris’s jaded sister Jeanine is John McCain, the Republican Senator who did not support Cruz and just wanted to pass a fair budget to keep the government running. Principal Rooney is President Obama. And so this crazy political issue becomes a John Hughes movie, simple to follow. Ted Cruz’s filibuster was Ferris’s song break during the parade. John Boehner’s resistance was Cameron’s multiple freak-outs. President Obama’s frustration was Principal Rooney’s rude finger gestures.
The Ferris approach is in some ways better than a multiple-page story in the New York Times. Overly technical, complicated and partisan news reports are simply not attractive to the average young person who wants to be informed but is overwhelmed by an endless influx of information. By combining information and accessibility in one click, a web page with GIFs easily changes current events from an obligation to entertainment. A problem emerges, however. In a democracy, why must the citizenry be enticed to keep up with its government’s activities? A government shut down should be relevant without silly references to pop culture.
But the creativity of bloggers knows no bounds. Another clever Internet favorite is Gretchen Weiner’s iconic “You can’t sit with us!” as a representation of ethnic and religious conflict in the Middle East. Instead of informing an audience about a current event, Gretchen is actually sharing an inside joke with an already informed reader. The parallel is only funny if the audience is familiar with both ongoing sectarian violence in the Middle East and “Mean Girls.” The GIF’s alchemy of political awareness and pop culture knowledge is focused on creating a specific relationship with a specific audience instead of Ferris’s broad informative approach. The same can be said about “Obama asks the Hill to Bomb Syria, as Explained by The Hills.” Lauren Conrad saying “Homeboy wore combat boots to the beach. I know you don’t want to call that your boyfriend” has no relevance to the reader unless he or she already has an opinion on the White House’s complicated proposal to invade Syria. But to an already informed and opinionated audience, such a GIF is hilarious and adds an uplifting cultural element to his or her knowledge.
Sites such as Buzzfeed and Betches Love This are not unlike Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, the Colbert Report or Saturday Night Live. Americans like to minimize and make fun of issues to make them more palatable. Something about Jon Stewart yelling “It’s [ObamaCare] a f—ing law” or Miley Cyrus dressed as Michelle Bachman “twerking” on a John Boehner impersonator comforts Americans in a disturbing, cynical and yet completely understandable way. These forms of political commentary provide a summarized and entertaining alternative to the excessive amount of traditional news coverage that eventually becomes monotonous.
Recent events, however, suggest that political entertainment blogs need to be closely analyzed, either as indicators of a problematic lack of democratic engagement or as reflections of a truly comedic, albeit troubling, political climate. One one hand, it is as though life is imitating art—if you can call it art. Has our political system devolved to that of feuding high school queen bees or the bizarre ramblings of drunken caricatured housewives? Or are citizens more interested in being a passive audience to a melodrama, news about their government only consumable when disguised as teen movies and reality TV? Something in our culture and our political system should be reevaluated when a parallel can be drawn between “bye Jason, you can go shave your back now” and United States’ policy towards Syria.