While reading the piece on opinion leadership, I thought it was interesting that what people look for most is unique content and originality. When I think of creativity and unique content, I don’t think of Donald Trump, but as I think more about his twitter presence, I can see why and how he became an opinion leader of sorts. What has always struck me about his tweets is how negative and simple they are. Trump does not say groundbreaking things in his tweets and I don’t really think of them as creative. Although the tweets alone are not creative, the fact that he is the president of the United States and uses twitter constantly is. Before Trump, political figures did not use twitter to connect with their followers, however in a weird way I think Trump does connect with his followers. His tweets are often informal and speak to the audience in a simple way. In the past, political leaders have tried to seem very formal and professional, which I think has kind of alienated people. In a sense, Trump is original and creative because he has sort of reinvented the etiquette for politicians. Although Trump is informal and often belligerent on twitter, he does bring something original to the table.
One Reply to “Blog Post 10/26/2020”
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I’m curious about Trump’s originality. Certainly there is something new about him, somehow he has an ability to shift what counts as truth-telling. Maybe the style is so new that it registers to people as shocking, hence, somehow, true.