Very Bernie

Town Meeting TV/CCTV Center for Media & Democracy Scenes from “Bernie Speaks: The Mayor’s Show,” a series on the Vermont public-access channel CCTV, in which Bernie Sanders interviews (clockwise from top left) a troop of boy scouts, a fisherman, a local musician, a sanitation worker, a pair of mall goths, and a group of children at summer camp, 1987–1988 In the fall of 2015 I attended a workshop at our children’s elementary school that warned of the dangers of Snapchat, the social media platform popular, in those days, with tweens and teens. Adults feared that “snaps,” or disappearing posts, would be an opportunity for peer pressure, bullying, and harassment. But a seventy-four-year-old presidential candidate saw them as a conduit for political messaging.Bernie Sanders made his Snapchat debut in November of 2015 and immediately drew hordes of followers. Soon people began to customize Bernie’s image using a feature called “geofilters.” In Iowa, you could frame your selfie with a cartoon Bernie holding a match and imploring your followers to “feel the Bern.” In New Hampshire, you could straddle the top of his campaign bus like a steer, and ride through the White Mountains.And so,...