Internet research

Credibility in Political Viral Video

January 23, 2010 · 2 Comments

It is no secret that YouTube exploded during the 2008 presidential election, becoming “the innovation” integrated into campaigning. We all remember the global warming melting snow man in the YouTube debate. We all laughed, but do we find that humorous approach a credible source for political communication? You’re going to be surprised. Well, maybe. In 2008, about 14 billion videos were watched on YouTube by U.S. Internet users. During the 2008 presidential campaign, voters rated watching YouTube political videos as one of the top three most popular online political activities.... [Read the full story]

Random notes

Words Can Never Hurt Me…And Other Lies

June 10, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I have been thinking about things we were told as kids by parents that were patently untrue (or highly unlikely). “Don’t play with that stick; you’ll poke your eye out.’ “If you keep making faces like that it’s gonna get stuck that way.” Somewhere there is an island where we have shipped all the kids who are missing an eye or whose faces have permanently frozen in some hideous expression. But to me the king of false phrases is “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” As an aside, the first part of this chant “sticks and stones may break my bones”... [Read the full story]

Blogs

Blogs, Civility and Mosh-Pit Politics

September 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment

If the current health care “debate” is an indicator of the health of the body politic, then we are sick puppies indeed. Town hall meetings, the basis of democracy in colonial America, have devolved into shouting matches more reminiscent of episodes of the Jerry Springer Show (my favorite recent title: “I cheated on my cousin with a tranny” than a civil give-and-take between Congressional leaders and their constituents. Both public officials and those on both sides of the issue that came for a serious discussion on health care were drowned out by the shouts of angry protesters. ... [Read the full story]

Online media

Denim, Hard Cheeses and The International Symposium on Online Journalism

April 28, 2010 · 1 Comment

Denim, hard cheeses, wine, my wife JoAnna. All things that improve with age. Add the International Symposium on Online Journalism in Austin to the list. This has always been one of my favorite events of the year because it combines professional and academic panels exploring the evolution of online journalism. The conference entered its second decade this past weekend with the strongest lineup I can remember, featuring panels on how journalism is adapting to mobile news, strategies for surviving the digital era (thankfully pay walls were rarely mentioned), participatory and nonprofit journalism.... [Read the full story]

Convergence

The Abacus, 8-Track Tapes….and Agenda Setting?

The abacus, the slide rule, 8-track tapes, Betamax… and agenda setting? The four technologies listed above died out when newer technologies that could perform their tasks better and more efficiently were developed. As I noted in an earlier blog, some scholars have similarly argued that new technologies may...

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Not By Simulation Alone (Or: Mo’ VR, Mo’ Problems…Unless You Do It Right)

We’ve often seen that old familiar question: “Do media technologies make it better or worse?” It’s been examined by many, particularly in general terms such as at the societal level (such as Neil Postman’s famous lack of love for television and electronic entertainment) and at the individual...

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Viral Politics and the Democratization of Political Speech

This blog post was written by Monica Ancu, assistant professor at University of South Florida. The rise of YouTube in political campaigns has an interesting undertone: user-generated videos with enough shock and awe value to make them viral and compete, at least in viewership, with candidate ads. The last two presidential...

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