Audience of One

The New York Times chief television critic James Poniewozik traces the history of television and mass media from the early 1980s to today and demonstrates how a volcanic, camera-hogging antihero merged with Americas most powerful medium to become the forty-fifth president. He charts the seismic evolution of television from a monolithic mass medium of mainstream networks into todays fractious media subculture. He then examines Donald Trump, who took advantage of these changes to reinvent himself: from boastful cartoon zillionaire; to 1990s self-parodic sitcom fixture; to The Apprentice-reality-TV star to Twitter-mad, culture-warring demagogue. A trenchant, often hilarious work, Audience of One provides an eye-opening history of American media and a reflection of a raucous, gorillas-are always-fighting culture.