The historic win of the recent American elections by the Republicans’ nominee for president, Donald Trump, has become the most unpredicted win in the US history. Political analysts could not have got it more wrong and are looking back into Trump’s campaign, in a bid to understand where did they go wrong in their predictions?
The fascination and also horror of his win against the Democrats’ presidential nominee for president, Hillary Clinton has not only affected the American people but people from around the world. Discussing the controversial personality of Trump and his surprising win was the topic of discussion by academics at DUT City Campus recently, who came together to deconstruct the American elections.
Facilitated by Robin Sewlal from the DUT Journalism Department, academics such as Dr Slyvia Kate (DUT Peacebuilding), Dr Lubna Nadvi (UKZN), DUT’s Tasneem Seedat (English and Communications) and journalist and DUT part-time lecturer, Tiema Haj Muind; took to the platform to voice their views and concerns pertaining to the new Trump presidency.
The general consensus from the panel of speakers was that Trump had made a controversial name for himself with his narcissistic, egotistical, racial and erratic rants on Muslims and Hispanics during his election campaign, but more concerning was his win against the Democrats through so-called ‘fake news’ and the usage of all social media platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter.
Speaking at the event, Dr Slyvia Kate from DUT Peacebuilding spoke about the role journalism and the press plays in bringing news to the people. She said truth-telling was vital and ethics are paramount. She also added that writers and editors should be sanctified from the prejudice of egotism and desire, and to be committed to equity and justice. “The media in the United States is primarily for profit and news organisations such as Fox News was openly prejudice and never challenged Trump on his rants and prejudices openly made; also 90% of media organisations were owned by six corporations with each one manifesting bias according to the interests of the viewers,” she added.
“The whole campaign run by Trump was based on the real peoples’ concerns in America which was exaggerated and constantly repeated through the channels. Racism and prejudice was promoted and Muslims made a target. The rise of fake news was promoted by Paul Horner, who started a Facebook fake-news empire, making his living off viral news hoaxes for several years,” said Dr Kate.
She also added that the reality of having Trump as the new United States president was frightening as many protesters have taken to the streets to rally against Trump’s racism remarks and comments made against certain minority groups; also reiterating that the future of the US was unpredictable.
Adding to Dr Kate’s conversation was Dr Lubna Nadvi from UKZN, who said having Trump for four years or even eight years as president was a horrifying scenario. “Debates are now arising in the US as what to do about the American Electoral College system where voters vote for electors, which is a problem in the US. Talks are arising as to whether the constitution needs to be changed and that is the new reality for the American people,” she said.
Journalist and DUT part-time lecturer, Tiema Haj Muind stated that the racial polarisation in the US epitomised neo-liberalism. “Democrats took for granted their electorals just like the African National Congress (ANC). From my perspective, we cannot think for the voters, to be a politician is not a problem, it’s how to manipulate the answers because Trump told the American people all the good things that they (voters) wanted to hear. It is not about a political party for the voter but it’s about the political party knowing what the people want,” he said.
Muind added that the US now faced a struggle of left wingers (Republicans under Trump) versing the rest of the American population.
DUT’s Tasneem Seedat found the whole US election debacle played out like a typical script straight out of a Hollywood movie. “Although we don’t vote for the US elections, the direct impact it has on us (South Africans) is still very scary, even affecting our Rand/Dollar exchange rates. To a large extent, we have no power yet we engage in the US social issues thus showing us the mass influence of media power in the US,” she said.
The panelists said Trump has made many promises to his American (Republican) voters and whether he keeps those promises is the question as time would tell if he does.
Pictured: Deconstructing the US elections are panelists, Dr Lubna Nadvi (UKZN), DUT’s Tasneem Seedat (English and Communications), (journalist and DUT part-time lecturer) Tiema Haj Muind and Dr Slyvia Kate (DUT Peacebuilding).
—Waheeda Peters
