How Michelle Obama uses algorithmic knowledge

Michelle Obam First Lady anymore, but with her presence on social media and by always being on-message, she still manages to have a political impact on the American people. In this article, Michelle Obama's use of algorithmic knowledge and political message to have political influence will be discussed.

Michelle Obama as former First Lady still has political impact

Michelle Obama is a public figure known by many people all around the world. As she is married to the 44th president of the United States, she was the first African-American First Lady from 2009 to 2017. Even though Michelle Obama cannot be called First Lady of the United States anymore, she is still popular by many and is still involved in the political system. Among other things, she uses her social media accounts to spread political messages, she makes her own podcast and wrote a book about her experiences of becoming a politically involved person.

In this article, I will analyze the way Michelle Obama uses language and political message in her political battle. Her image, identity, and the issues she addresses all contribute to her trustworthiness as a politically involved person, which makes her likely to still have a political impact on her audience. Subsequently, the way Michelle Obama incorporat algorithmic knowledge – the knowledge one has about the way algorithms function in the social media environment – in her political strategy will be discussed, since using algorithmic knowledge can also have an effect on the spreading of political message, and, therefore, on her political influence as well.

The roles of language and message in politics

Language is of key importance in politics (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 25). Almost everything we perceive as politics can be related to language. Politicians and politically involved people give their audience an idea of what they think society should look like. Thisconstructing of society is the basis of politics (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 19). It decides whether politicians will be elected or not, and also determines which issues, addressed by non-politicians, will be discussed by the government. Within the governmental system, all processes can be related to language as well (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 21). For example, proposing new laws or regulations, debating about societal issues, and discussing statements for upcoming elections, can all be related to language.

Everything politicians communicate to an audience constructs their political message. It is constructed through language, both verbal and non-verbal, and can be studied by analyzing politicians’ discourses. The way issues are communicated to the audience, for example, in a more dialogical style rather than a monological style, influences the political message. Also, the use of framing, prosody, metaphors, and textual poetics are, for example, practices of language that co-construct the message (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, pp. 25-26)

The political message, thus, not only consists of the issues politicians want to appoint to in their political careers (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 26), but is about everything around it. It is about how it is told, in what context, and by who. For analyzing politicians’ messages, the political message can, roughly, be divided into three : image, issues, and identity (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 26).

Image is an essential aspect of message because the image determines how politicians are perceived by the audience (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 12). For the audience, the image represents how politicians are dealing with issues in society. When a politician, for example, has the image  a decisive but rather aggressive person, this politician is expected to handle issues in a different way than a politician who is perceived as reliable and charismatic. This, therefore, co-constructs the political message.

Likewise, the issues politicians address, construct the political message (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 12). By appointing certain issues, politicians’ objectives, beliefs, and values are made clear for the audience. The addressed issues and the image of politicians are, moreover, interrelated. Issues that are addressed in one’s election campaign can influence the image of the political person.

Another aspect that co-constructs the political message is identity (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 26). Identity and identifiability can influence the perception of politicians for the audience. Politicians that are highly identifiable for a specific group of people are rather to be supported by them than politicians with lower identifiability. A, how politicians identify their opponents influences the message (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 10-11). By counter-messaging, politicians represent the differences between them and their opponents. Addressing wh objectives they do not strive for, and what issues they do not want to commit to, politicians reinforce their own political messages.  

To be perceived as a trustworthy and believable representative of the people, and to have a political impact, politicians should always be on-message (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 49). Everything politicians do and say should contribute to the message.

How algorithmic knowledge is involved in the political message

Politicians and politically involved people take advantage of the so-called hybrid media system to spread their political messages (Chadwick, Dennis, & Smith, 2016). Since the development of digital technologies, new media occurred next to the formerly existing legacy media (newspaper, television, etc.). The hybrid media system enables users to use different media at the same time. Besides, not only politicians can spread their attitudes and beliefs regarding societal issues build an audience through social media. Instead of the message being adapt to the medium, the message can now be spread by everyone, everywhere, and simultaneously on different platforms (Chadwick et al., 2016). As Chadwick et al. (2016) describe, “actors create or steer the information flows, in a way that suits their goals and in ways that modify, enable and disable the agency of others.”

The capacity to influence an audience through the hybrid media system increased even more since algorithms were introduced in our online environment. Algorithms are socio-technical assemblages that are used to facilitate and influence technological processes and human behavior. On social media platforms, algorithms are used to personalize the experience users get when they are using the platform. User profiles are being created, resulting in a newsfeed completely adapted to what is relevant and likable for that particular social media user (Maly, 2019).

Algorithms can be used in the online political battle for politicians and political figures. Through knowing what the audience likes, using the right hashtags, and interacting with the right articles on the right platforms, politicians can become more prominently visible on the newsfeed of their target audience (Maly, 2019). Also non-politicians, like Michelle Obama, gain profit of algorithms in their political battles because of the  media system that everyone can share politics-related opinions and beliefs on social media.

As Maly (2020) describes, in the overload of messages and articles users see on a daily basis on their social media, using algorithmic knowledge can increase or decrease the visibility of people, movements, and organizations online. Through interacting with the audience, writing appealing titles and texts for their articles or posts, or even paying for a higher ‘ranking’ in the algorithmic systems, social media users can receive a higher amount of visibility. Political figures can use this visibility to spread their political message further, to gain popularity, and to have a political impact (Maly, 2020).           

This algorithmic knowledge can, thus, be an advantage for politicians, and can moreover be perceived as essential for politically involved people to incorporate in their strategies. Algorithmic knowledge affects the political message of politicians, and to stay on-message, knowledge about algorithms is, therefore, essential for politicians’ effectiveness of their strategies and their online visibility.

How Michelle Obama uses language to construct her political message

Many of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s language can ube related to her image of being the voice of the people.  gives people the feeling of belonging to a community, with her being their representative. This can be seen on all Obama’s social media accounts, in her book ‘Becoming’, and in her speeches as a First Lady.

Moreover, in her final speech as a First Lady, she states the following: "being your First Lady has been the greatest honor of my life and I hope I've made you proud.". In this statement, she makes clear how she cares for the American inhabitants. As Obama continues her speech, she wants to empower other people to follow their dreams just like she did: ”I want our young people to know that they matter, that they belong. So don't be afraid. You hear me, young people? Don't be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. Empower yourself with a good education. Then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise. Lead by example with hope; never fear".

Michelle Obama uses typically motivationally and sympathetically worded language (“Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined…"; “Being your First lady has been the greatest honor…”) to get people involved in politics. By addressing issues and talking about other politicians, she informs her audience about what is going on in the political field, and this can be seen as one of the features that make Michelle Obama a politically involved person.

The message Michelle Obama wants to spread through her political battle

In the case of Michelle Obama, her political message can be described as: everyone should be equal: men, women, black and white, and the political system should be shaped to guarantee these equal opportunities for everyone in society. Obama informs people about what is going on in the political field on her platforms. In her podcast, for example, Obama does not only discuss her personal life but also conversates in-depth about the political careers and the personal lives of her politically active colleagues. Here, she does not only present societal issues but also constructs her identity and image, which, likewise, contributes to her message.

One of the a that  the political message is the image. If a person’s image is not corresponding to the message, this person would not be perceived as a trustworthy representative of the people (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012). Michelle Obama image of a successful, reliable, and charismatic woman. This is partially constructed by the way she communicates with her audience. Obama can be perceived as a good public speaker, hosts her own podcast in which she interacts with the audience, and invites people on her online channels to interact with her. This communicating style contributes to her political message.

Figure 1. Michelle Obama’s empathic and emotional writing style (1/3)  Bart van Overbeeke

Furthermore, the language Obama uses is also reinforcing her image. Her tone of voice can be described as emotional and empathic. In her Instagram posts, she writes – mostly – long subscriptions beneath the photos, in which she elaborates her thoughts precisely, and in a sympathetically worded (e.g., “I couldn’t be more thankful” (Figure 1); “Thank you to all” (Figure 2)) and relatable (“Many of us will be experiencing Thanksgiving in a whole new way this year” (Figure 3)) way for her, probably mostly democratic, audience.

Obama describes, for example, her personal feelings about the release of Barack Obama’s memoir: “ I can’t wait for him to experience what I did after my memoir was published.” (Figure 1). Besides, she states to be thankful for everyone who was committed to the Democratic party surrounding the 2020 presidential elections: “Thank you to all of you who poured every ounce of your hope and determination into this democracy over these past four years, registering voters, getting them to the polls, keeping folks informed.” (Figure 2). Moreover, she expresses herself sympathetically towards her followers’ situations surrounding the celebration of Thanksgiving during the corona crisis: “I hope you can still find some time to tell the people in your life how much they mean to you.” (Figure 3).

This emotional, sympathetic and relatable messaging style is not only part of a clever strategy to r attention for her book on the occasion of Barack Obama’s book coming out (Figure 1), and to promote her podcast (Figure 3), but this strategy also contributes to her image as a reliable, charismatic woman, and, thus, to the ability to spread her political message and to have a political impact.

Google

What also contributes to the political message, are the addressed issues by political figures. The main issues that Michelle Obama recently addressed are (in)equality and the 2020 presidential elections. Actually, these two are connected, since – at least from Obama’s perspective – equality could only be strived for by voting for Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential elections. Obama actively supports organizations that strive for equality for everyone, for example, Girls Opportunity Alliance (Figure 4), which is an  founded by the Obama Foundation.

Moreover, Michelle Obama is also a member of the Voting Squad from the organization When We All Vote (Figure 5), which encourages especially young people from minority groups to vote. Addressing these issues, which are relevant and relatable for her target audience, positively impacts Michelle Obama’s message and, thus, her political influence.

Image: Pexels.com

Furthermore, Michelle’s identity contributes to her political message. Since she is an African-American woman, and is, therefore, a member of a minority group in the United States of America. Obama uses that identity of a non-white woman to strengthen her message about equality and a democratic government. She describes herself as one of the common Americans, and as an ordinary woman. On both her Instagram and Facebook page, for example, her biography states ‘girl from the South Side’ even before 'former First Lady' (Figure 6).

Image: Pixels.com

The way she presents herself as one of the people and addresses relevant for these people, like she does regarding the inequality between men and women in Figure 7 (“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish when we use our voices and vote”), increases the relevance of her political message for the audience and the influence of her political battle. Moreover, her position as a former First Lady gives her audience a perception of expertise and reliability as a politician. This also contributes to her political message.

To conclude, Michelle Obama’s goal to inform her audience about the developments in the political field anaddressing societal issues that she can personally relate to, contribute to her political message. Also, her identity as  who is one of the people and her image as a reliable, charismatic woman, in combination with her emotionally toned and sympathetic style of writing, make that everything Obama does is in line with the message. A plausible explanation for the fact that Michelle still has a political impact, even though she cannot be considered as a politician anymore, is that she always stays on-message and that her political message is relatable and relevant for the people she wants to represent.

Curvabezier

How Michelle Obama uses algorithmic knowledge   

Algorithmic knowledge can influence the impact of the communicated message on the audience. By taking advantage of the affordances of algorithms on social media, politicians’ and politically involved people’s platforms can gain more visibility online. People with large audiences benefit even more from algorithmic knowledge. More interaction with your posts means more visibility, and, therefore, already large platforms gain visibility in a larger amount than small platforms. Michelle Obama, therefore, benefits from her position as former First Lady of the United States. Because of her duties as First Lady, she has a large audience already, and can, therefore, take advantage of her algorithmic knowledge which can enable her to spread her political message, as well as to earn money by selling more of her books, and to attract attention for her podcast.

An example of the incorporation of algorithmic knowledge in Obama’s political strategy is the use of hashtags. Using hashtags can influence the visibility of social media posts. If other people use the same hashtag, the posts gain even more visibility. This is because hashtags are incorporated in the algorithmically functioning systems of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Obama does in fact take advantage of these hashtags. By writing the hashtags #IAmBecoming and #APromisedLand (based on the titles of both hers, and Barack Obama’s biography), she invites people to also use these hashtags when they are talking about their books. Therefore, she is gaining not only more visibility for her biography, but mostly for her social media profile. Likewise, by using more regularly used hashtags like #ivoted and #electionday, Obama increases the visibility of her social media accounts even more.

Furthermore, tagging people can increase visibility for political figures in the hybrid media system as well. By tagging other people, the reach of the tagged person is used as well. Therefore, the amount of interaction with the post is presumably higher, and therefore, the chance to spread the political message and have political impact increases as well (Maly, 2020). This can also be seen on Michelle Obama’s Instagram profile where she tags @Joebiden, @kamalaharris, @whenweallvote, and @barackobama among others.

IVN.us

Likewise, Obama’s podcast ‘The Michelle Obama Podcast’ contributes to algorithmic visibility, and, therefore, to Obama’s political impact.  the podcast, Obama hosts conversations with other famous or interesting people, sometimes politically involved and sometimes not. When there is a new episode of her podcast online, Obama shares this on her social media accounts (Figure 8). Her guests take advantage of Michelle’s publicity and share the podcast as well. This influences both Obama’s and the guest’s visibility online because more interaction means more visibility.

Being on-message contributes to Obama’s political battle

Michelle Obama is a non-politic person (since she is not active in the American government) who, thanks to her accurate use of the affordances of the hybrid media system, still knows how to continue . By informing her audience about developments in the political field, discussing societal issues, and adjusting her representation of her identity and her image to the audience, she always stays on-message. This makes her a politically involved person who is a reliable representative of her audience. What contributes to this, is that she uses algorithmic knowledge to her advantage. The use of hashtags, collaborations with other politicians, and sharing actively about her activity around political issues on social media, all contribute to her being on-message. Consequently, even though Michelle Obama is rather a politically involved person than a politician, she knows how to influence an audience to have a political impact.

References

Chadwick, A., Dennis, J., & Smith, A. P. (2016). Politics in the Age of Hybrid Media: Power, Systems, and Media Logics. In Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbø, E., Larsson, A. O., & Christensen, C. (eds). (2016) The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics.

Lempert, M., & Silverstein, M. (2012). Creatures of politics: Media, message, and the American presidency. Indiana University Press.

Maly, I. (2019). Algorithmic populism and algorithmic activism. Diggit magazine.

Maly, I. (2020). Algorithmic populism and the datafication and gamification of the people by Flemish Interest in Belgium.1