This article examines Donald Trump as a hybrid figure who merges two historically intertwined roles: the King and the Fool. Through an interdisciplinary analysis that draws on carnival theory, the history of satire, pop-cultural archetypes, and contemporary political communication, the essay argues that Trump operates simultaneously as sovereign and jester, rendering traditional satirical critique ineffective. His rise is interpreted as the culmination of a cultural shift in which comedy, trolling, and digital meme culture reshape political authority. From medieval misrule to the alt-right's online irony, from the malign clown archetype in American popular culture to the trickster figure theorized by anthropology and psychology, the article traces how laughter has become a potent but ambivalent political force. Trump'sperformances-part stand-up routine, part authoritarian spectacle-create a closed circuit of ridicule in which he channels mockery directed at him and redirects it toward opponents, neutralizing satire as a tool of dissent. The essay also explores the limits of comic resistance, comparing Trump's self-parodic persona with past attempts to deflate authoritarian power through humor, from Chaplin to Brecht. Ultimately, Trump's dual embodiment of ruler and buffoon reveals a structural vulnerability in democratic discourse: when political reality adopts the logic of carnival, laughter no longer destabilizes power but may instead reinforce it.
This article reinterprets the doxasphere by emphasizing how connected digital media reorganize political communication through seriality. Building on Bourdieu's notion of public opinion as a field of forces, the model is updated to account for transformations affecting decision-makers, pressure groups, media systems, and connected multitudes. Digital platforms intensify disintermediated communication and reinforce algorithmic visibility, enabling political actors and influencers to structure public discourse through serialized narrative formats (defined by repetitions and variations). Seriality becomes a strategic device: issues are not only circulated but serialized, unfolding as sequences of episodes that reiterate frames, emotions, and antagonisms. This process sustains attention over time, amplifies polarization, and converts conflicts into recurring media events shaped by platform logics. Hybridized media ecosystems reproduce these serial patterns, while prosumer practices continuously feed new iterations of the same controversies. The article argues that serialized issues now constitute the primary organizational form of political communication in the connected doxasphere, where actors compete to impose meaning within an environment governed by repetition, acceleration, and variations.
In a fragmented and polarized information environment, the growing distrust of citizens toward institutions represents one of the most urgent challenges for contemporary society. In this scenario, the study examines the role of social media and generative artificial intelligence in reshaping public communication practices and influencing institutional trust. Research questions focus on how public communicators perceive the challenges posed by social media and GenAI, and how these platforms impact on the relationship between institutions and citizens. This qualitative study involved 14 semi-structured interviews with public communication professionals working at European institutions. Findings highlights both the value and the risks associated with digital platforms: social media can facilitate citizen engagement and rapid information dissemination but can also amplify the spread of misinformation contributing to the loss of public trust. GenAI introduces further complexity and concerns about transparency and ethical standards. Findings underline the need for regulatory frameworks, ongoing professional development, and adaptive communication strategies to safeguard trust in public institutions.
In 1955, Personal Influence by Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld was published, becoming a seminal work in media studies. This article traces its history, original context, theoretical foundations, and highlights its pivotal role in shaping the field of communication. Focus is placed on the well-known two-step flow model, presented in the form that later became canonical. The article also examines the model's connection to the theory of limited effects, reviewing the main criticisms and Lazarsfeld's own ambivalent stance. Finally, it reflects on the model's enduring relevance in today's context.
This paper analyzes the crisis of globalization through the lens of the conflict between imaginaries, highlighting how deglobalization is not merely the result of economic trends or geopolitical strategies, but primarily the outcome of a semiotic competition shaping politics, technology, and culture. Starting from the collapse of the globalist utopia, the paper explores polarization and schismogenesis as mediological processes, the transition from ideologies to homologies, and the role of digital platforms in constructing new neo-feudal paradigms. Particular attention is devoted to the Trumpian imaginary, the ideological metamorphosis of Silicon Valley, and the semiotic guerrilla practices that fuel postcolonial counter-narratives and participatory cultures. Through the analysis of phenomena such as deepfakes, memes, and media seriality, the study reveals the redefinition of the global order as the outcome of a war between imaginaries, where retrotopias, eternalism, and technological dystopias replace the myth of a progressive utopia. Finally, the paper reflects on the shift from storytelling to storyliving as a pedagogy prompting how to live in a dystopian or retrotopian world of the post-global era.
