The new ability to harness the power of popular communications mediums is an essential part of the campaign for presidency made more complicated in the 2008 election by the emergence of new communications technologies, such as youtube, that are controlled not by a corporations, but by who ever choose to utilize them and. One of the first videos of note that supported the Obama campaign was the video “I’ve Got a Crush On Obama” By Obama Girl. This massively popular video established an emotional base for the Obama campaign and established the ability to gain social capital by favoring Obama. Chronologically one of the next key videos was Sarah Pailin’s interview with Katie Couric. Because of Pailin’s poor performance, the video established a perception of the lack of ability of McCain’s running mate, and the display of the video on you tube demonstrated that it was a popular perception of the candidate. Taking this perception further the video The McCain-Pailin Mob showed the ignorance of voters who favor the Republican ticket. The Obama campaign has benefitted massively from several youtube videos that have established an appearance not of the candidate, but of the type of person who favors each of the candidates, and because youtube can be viewed as a microcosm of the greater culture it also show that these are not just how the supports are trying to be displayed but also how they are perceived. The perception of a voter has become drastically more important in this election as citizens become the produces of political information.
The video I’ve Got a Crush On Obama” By Obama Girl received 10,552,813 views as of 10:48 on November 4th 2008 created a framework for a strong emotional connection with the Democratic Candidate. The popularity of the video establishes its value within the youtube community, and there for to favor the video’s message, to have a “crush” on Obama, is a way of obtaining social capital. The majority of the lyrics denote the emotional favorability of Senator Obama, but the line of the song “You tell me the truth unlike the right” also established the Republican Party and those people to the right who favor the Republican Party as deceptive, ignorant, or uninformed. The video’s total value to the Obama campaign is that it creates a reason to, and the reasonability of, having an emotional connection with Barack Obama and implies that the republicans are not worthy of trust.
When the Sarah Pailin was intervened by Katie Couric the calamitous performance of the vice presidential candidate furthered the display of the ignorance of the Republican Party. While Pailin’s interview was first filmed and displayed on national television, its’ appearance on youtube and its popularity, in excess of five million views between the several versions of the video that appear on you tube posted both the CBS and several other subscribers, demonstrates that this how many people perceive Governor Pailin, and make it a commodity produced by citizens rather than information produced by the mainstream media. In this case it is both the replication of the video on youtube by people other than CBS and the favorability of the video created by people viewing it that allows citizens to become the produces of popular media.
The portrayal and perception of Governor Pailin as ignorant and uninformed created the opportunity for portrayal of citizens who favor John McCain and Sarah Pailin as ignorant.e McCain Pailin Mob, number seven on the Politico list of the “10 most viral videos of the campaign”(Ressner, viral videos), shows the ignorance of some of the citizens who Support McCain and Pailin, and ostensibly all McCain supporters. The fact that the video focuses not on the ignorance of the campaign but of its supporters demonstrates the focus on the citizens as producers rather than campaigns as producers.
The world of youtube is not an exact reflection of the views of society, but it is popular enough to be an accurate microcosm of the trends in American society. The popular videos of youtube such as The video I’ve Got a Crush On Obama” By Obama Girl, Pailin On Foreign Policy, and The McCain-Pailin Mob both reflect a major societal perception of candidates and their supporters, and the consumers of media who choose to produce videos for youtube also help to establish those perception. The citizens, not he campaigns, have constructed a single framework for the categories of people who favor a each of the candidates and not the policy of the candidates these three youtube videos display an affective connection with Senator Obama as favorable and reasonable, while displayed a connection with senator McCain as ignorant. With the emergence of technology that allows citizens to produce media that can have a massive effect on the campaign, has rearranged the way in which a political campaign is run making it more important for the candidates to control not how may people favor them, but what media these people are producing and how those people, or the culture of the campaign, is displayed.
Works Cited
Barelypolitical. ""I Got a Crush...On Obama" By Obama Girl." Youtube - "I Got a Crush...On Obama" By Obama Girl. 13 June 2007. Youtube. 4 Nov. 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wksoxhyicqu.
Bloggerinterrupted. "The McCain-Pailin Mob." Youtube - The McCain-Pailin Mob. 8 Oct. 2008. Youtube. 4 Nov. 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxzmaxag9e.
CBS. "Pailin on Foreign Policy." Youtube - Pailin on Foreign Policy. 25 Sept. 2007. Youtube. 4 Nov. 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noktjedaugg.
Ressner, Jeffrey. "10 most viral videos of the Campaign." 10 most viral videos of the Campaign - Jeffrey Ressner -Politico.com. 2 Nov. 2008. Politico. 4 Nov. 2008 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15182.html.
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