Convergence of popular culture and politics in the USA during the 2008 presidential election campaign

This article is designed to explore the convergence of popular culture and politics during the presidential election campaign of 2008. The article shall commence with the clarification of the meaning of the concepts of popular culture and celebrity, and will continue with a short overview of the existing theoretical framework dealing with different approaches to fame and celebrity culture. The analytical part of the article will be devoted to the examination of the narrative structure of the celebrity persona of Barack Obama created by media during the last presidential campaign. The analysis shall be based on a wide range of popular culture texts: newspaper articles, campaign memos, interviews, advertisements and TV reports. The aim of this article is to show how the saturation coverage of celebrity changes political discourse, and how the concept of fame used in the campaign facilitates the reading of celebrity as a derogatory force which downgrades serious politics.