There’s a telling moment in the documentary film Prime Minister when Jacinda Ardern reflects on her rapid rise from Labour leader to prime minister, saying she had “no time to redesign myself […] I could only be myself”.
This reference to her “true” self signals a commitment to political authenticity, a thread that runs through the award-winning documentary about Ardern’s remarkable time in office.
But in political communication, authenticity is seldom straightforward. It is primarily understood as a “performance” of self, usually by politicians for voters, and filtered by news and social media.
Skilled politicians — on the right as much as the left — know this. And voters, too, can accept things as simultaneously “real” and manufactured.