As we know, a great deal of blogging, and commenting on blogs, is venting. Firing off a post stops me writing angry letters to newspapers and MPs every week, as I was doing before 2005. Its also a kind of constructive wish-fulfilment – “Here is the article they should have published.” Fisking is the transcript of the imaginary conversation that you have with a journalist, after you’ve read something particularly misguided.
Now we have YouTube, this wish-fulfilment applies to TV programmes and adverts, as well as print journalism. The highly trafficked Daily Dish has posted a call for user-generated presidential campaign adverts, aimed at rebutting some adverts, and highlighting the worst excesses of the ‘official campaigns’.
Liberal Conspiracy provided a good outlet for mayoral campaign videos during the London elections earlier this year, but with an unapologetic anti-Boris leaning. I think it is doubtful that the videos themselves had much of an effect, since British political campaigns are not run via TV advertising in the same manner as the American races are. Over there, each TV spot is carefully analysed, and the most audacious quickly become memes to be parodied. Hillary Clinton’s “3am” advert was the most memorable example during the primary season, and John McCain’s “celebrity” advert has already inspired a high-profile rebuttal from Paris Hilton:
(Hilariously, Hilton’s energy policy seems to be more detailed than McCain’s, an observation which the pundits have seized upon, and which could ultimately mean that the original advert does more harm than good to the Arizona Sentaor’s campaign.)
What is interesting about the user-generated campaign adverts, and the exposure that a high-profile blog like Sullivan’s can give them, is that the wish-fulfilment excercise actually becomes real (leave aside Paris Hilton’s advert, which is presumably professionally made and taps into an entirely different type of wish-fulfilment).
A competition such as this one also re-asks the question about how much influence the blogosphere can exert over the politcal narrative. To my mind, it is inconceivable that Obama’s web-savvy campaign does not have people assigned to keep an eye on what Sullivan and his cohorts are discussing online. I am sure that the main news outlets monitor the larger blogs too, to gauge the consensus on a given policy announcement, campaign stop, or gaffe. It is certain that much of the comment from British journalists on US politics is recycled from t’blogs.
So the point is, that if the campaign “narratives” are largely determined by what the media reports, and well trodden blogs like the Daily Dish do indeed feed into that media… then something like the campaign advert competition will allow a whole new set of voices to have an impact on the campaign. And better still, since these voices are not celebrity ‘names’ (and often operate under a pseudonym or online ‘handle’), they only gain exposure through the strength of the idea. Surely a good thing.
Apologies – This is all old ground. But worth re-treading, given the expense and importance of the election to come. In the aftermath, it will be interesting to pin-point where the centre of gravity of the race came to rest. If it proves to be somewhere online, then that’s a paradigm shift in the way humans conduct their business.
Author: Robert (Page 226 of 328)
I forgot to cross-post here a few paragraphs I posted to Liberal Conspiracy last week, commenting on Andy Burnham’s call for more internet regulation:
It is also contentious that the poor are being disadvantaged by the ‘lawless’ internet – One great advantage of the medium is that it reduces the financial barriers of entry into any given business. Putting online regulation in place will surely restore those barriers.
Later, Unity took Burnham to task at greater length, for misrepresenting John Perry Barlow’s ‘A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace‘ in a quest to defend royalties for the rich music labels, at the expense of new and more equitable business models, where intellectual property is shared or even waived, that are appearing online.
Meanwhile, the CMS Select Committee suggests that YouTube should be better policed, with content certificates similar to those awarded to movies. Taming the Wild-West seems to be on the DCMS agenda.
Although the “wild-west” conception of the internet is probably inaccurate description of most people’s experience, message boards like the misanthropic /b/ board at 4chan certainly do have a lawless air to them. Not only are there no rules governing behaviour, but the participants do not seem to abide by most established social rules, or rules of decency either. But, as this interesting article from the New York Times Magazine shows, even those who are intent on disrupting the lives of others, causing panic without empathy, do seem to operate by a code of sorts, only attacking those they consider to be stupid, hypocritical, inconsistent… or careless:
“It’s not that I do this because I hate them. I do this because I’m trying to save them.”
Writing in the Times, Amir Taheri warns of rising Islamism in North Africa, especially Morocco:
Women in jeans or mini-skirts have all but disappeared from public, along with all females who favoured the colourful dress of the Berber. One sees countless women draped in black that remind one of Hitchcock’s The Birds. … Fewer and fewer places serve alcohol, and parts of the main cities are becoming no-go areas for foreign tourists.
I was in Morocco less that two weeks ago on holiday, and this doesn’t sound like the place I visited. It was difficult, though not impossible, to get alcohol in the old Medinas, but outside the city walls it was not a problem. And I remember being surprised at seeing young, local girls in Western clothing – not hot-pants, admittedly, but certainly figure-hugging outfits, strappy tops, make-up and jeans. Likewise with the Berber outfits, of which we saw plenty. Indeed, it was the black-clad munaqqaba who stood out, because they were an unusual sight. Its true that hijabs reign, but that’s not in itself a sign of Islamic extremism.
Nor did there appear to be any no-go areas for tourists. Indeed, our favourite afternoon was in Meknes, where we cautiously wandered into the back alleys of the Medina, to escape the pungent smell of the souqs. Far from feeling threatened or harassed, we were greeted with smiles and ‘hellos’ around every corner.
Amid the cacophony of speculation about the future of Gordon Brown’s premiership, the imminent electoral meltdown, and the future direction of the Labour party, I think one aspect is being marginalised, which is the future of the party at a local level, and in local government. It is clear that current crisis is playing out on a national level, with national and international problems catalysed by Westminster intruigue and a failure of national leadership that can speak to the concerns of the people.
Now, the fall-out from this is obviously felt at the local level, as Labour’s loss of councillors in the May elections demonstrates. But it is not clear that the existential worries currently afflicting Gordon Brown and his parliamentary colleagues are shared by their Labour friends on local councils. In Tower Hamlets, for example, the Labour group recently increased their majority after four defections from Respect, and a by-election win (after a popular Lib Dem councillor stood down for health reasons, no less).
Of course, if the local parties are not suffering from the same crisis of purpose, this is probably to do with the differences between the nature of local and national governance. Localities like Tower Hamlets have very specific problems, to which a Labour council can confidently respond within their current ideology, without having to worry about national unity, or whether the same policy would be effective in different boroughs.
So, as the columnists and bloggers search in vain for a viable alternative to Brown, and a new direction for the party, I wonder whether the most coherent and confident voices might come from local government, rather than the national scene, policy wonks, or the unions. They are ideally placed to comment on pressing issues such as community cohesion and knife-crime, and how other concerns such as the environment and immigration can be dealt with in practice.
These are purely my anecdotal thoughts – what are the thoughts and experiences of other Liberal Conspiracy readers and writers?
Cross-posted at Liberal Conspiracy.
This notice, when I log on to Internet banking:
One-off online payments that you make from your current account will now, where possible, be sent quicker. In most cases your payment will reach the receiving bank almost immediately and show in the recipient’s account in a couple of hours.
At last! Its a bug-bear that everyone seems to hold. Banks holding onto your money for days at a time for no apparent reason. Now thankfully going the way of the dodo.