Convergence presentation final1

Politics and Popular Culture

Sara Q. Fred Sara T. Rodrigo

What is Popular Culture

Pop Culture is the cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people

Presidents & Pop Culture

Ronald Reagan- first actor to become president

President William Clinton

Bill Clinton- first president to play an instrument on national televison

Pop Culture Icon Barack Obama

Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster

Merchandise sales from his 2008 campaign totaled $37 million

Spent $6.7 million for merchandise in 2012 campaign vs Romney’s $1.7 million

Television

Since the invention of the television in 1927, it has become a hub for themes in popular culture

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live’s political skits on Sarah Palin in 2008 had a huge impact on how people viewed the vice presidential candidate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdDqSvJ6aHc

Controversial Politics in Social Media

Facebook’s usage of screening technology that monitors chats for words and phrases and usage of vulgar language

Louisiana state law requiring sex offenders to list their status on Facebook

Jenkins draws a connection between grassroots fan movements to the 2004 political campaign, examining how politicians and political activists have applied the tools and activities of fans to their own work. He uses this analysis to implicitly argue for a communal action that incorporates news media and entertainment. Referring to the 2004 campaign, Jenkins claims that “ Popular culture shaped how the public processed and acted upon political discourse” (219).

Spring of 2004, a group called True Majority Action released a video depicting George W. Bush being fired by Donald Trump. The video was a compilation of video clips from The Apprentice, and instances where Bush has been on television looking shocked. True Majority Action was a group that strives to increase voter participation in the 2004 election, and support a progressive agenda. True Majority Action used competition to stir an emotion in consumers.

Photoshop for Democracy By: Jenkins The New Relationship Between Politics and Popular Culture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fKPKhXFxs4&feature=player_embedded

True Majority Action gave them a platform to express their attitude towards Bush’s previous administration, which is an example of participatory culture.

The increase in participation, collective intelligence, and media convergence shouldn’t be taken as a revolution by any means; it is a shift in the way the public communicates in the “global” community. Through experimentation of technology, popular culture shaped conventional politics, parody news shows informed the youth, all of which encouraged the entire country to take action.

The Revolution will not be televised

We are currently standing on the threshold of a new era in history, revolutionary events are occurring as we speak, by products of the participatory media culture we are all a part of.

Jenkins quotes "The political role of the Internet is expanding without diminishing the power of broadcast media"(225). For example, This revolutionary invention in the history of convergence culture is called the "blog”, which is a form of personal and subcultural expression involving summarizing and linking to other social networking sites such as Facebook, or twitter and other outlets.

Bloggers of course are not without their own set of flaws. "Bloggers make no claims on objectivity; they deal often with rumors or just personal opinions.

Blogging may on one level be facilitating the flow of ideas across the media landscape; on other levels, they are ensuring an ever more divisive political debate. Despite these thoughts, blogs may single handedly be the most influential tool in popular media culture as well as being the driving force being grassroots of communication.

Fans, Consumers, CitizensAn example of “popular culture” would be the “30sec Bush video” contest, an effort to encourage people around the world to make their political voice heard; using their own creativity to explain why “Bush should not be elected” (230).

In a democracy, every citizen has their own say on the leader of the country. Therefore, activists, fans use Photoshop (a graphics software package) to manipulate images and create their political statements. These images were very powerful, since they often took a pop culture idea and spun it to make a political statement. The ease of distribution the internet allowed, made it possible for your voice to be heard across the world.

Photoshop Democracy became part of the “popular culture” because images send a much stronger message across than words ever could. The “Photoshop” movement influenced young Americans to be more conscious and involved in politics/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVdTzPEYvH4&feature=player_embedded

Monitorial Citizen: A citizen that is no longer “fully informed” due to how complex and fast-changing the world is today. This results in Media being the main source of information about specific events going on around the world.

Entertaining the Monitorial Citizen

“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical

Reproduction” by Walter BenjaminIn this essay written in 1936, he argues

that mass-production and mass-circulation would have a profoundly democratic impact.

He claims that mechanical reproduction ruins the “aura” surrounding art works.Relating this to popular culture, he also claims that people would rather offer judgment on sports teams and Hollywood movies that on artworks in museums.“Does making politics into a kind of popular culture allow consumers to apply fan expertise to their civic responsibilities?”

Pew Foundation Statistics (2004) & Jon

KatzIn 2000, 39% of respondents regularly got campaign information from newscasts.

In 2004, the same number had fallen to 23%.

In the same period of time the percentage of people under the age of thirty who received campaign information from comedy shows had grown from 9% to 21%.

This study showed that young people got information from entertainment media instead of news media.

Jon Katz :He argues that as early as 1994 young people felt that entertainment reflected their perspective on current events.

The Daily showDuring the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Comedy Central offered more hours of coverage than other leading news channels such as ABC, CBS, NBC.

They claim that people that watch this show are more interested in the presidential campaign.

Jon Stewart(The Daily Show) vs. Tucker Carlson(CNN’s Crossfire)

Carlson apparently wanted Stewart to tell jokes and promote his book, but he refused to play that role.Stewart charged the news program with corrupting the political process.

Playing Politics in Alphaville

Alphaville

One of the oldest and most densely populated towns in “The Sims Online”In 2004, after releasing the game online there was a great demand and the game quickly gained popularity.There was an online election to see who would control the imaginary’s town government.A 20 year old was running against a middle-schooler.Alphaville’s presidential elections attracted national and even international media attention.At the end the older guy won the elections but the newspaper “Alphaville Herald” published a transcript of an internet chat session that suggested that the election process may have been rigged from the very beginning.They came to the conclusion that even in play, American democracy felt broken.

The Making of Citizens(2000)

In this book, David Buckingham examines the factors that tend to discourage young people from consuming news.

Children find the language of politics unfamiliar.They feel powerless in their everyday lives.They have difficulty imagining

having political power.

Vote NakedIn this final section of this chapter, Jenkins focuses on the connection that it will take for people to be comfortable with politics.

He describes the “vote naked” campaign as a way for everyone to be more fully engaged with the elections.

It is all about conducting the most public of actions within the privacy of our own home.

He concludes by saying that if we want to bridge between red and blue America, we need to find that kind of common ground and expand upon it.

The Politics of Participation

In 2004 Al Gore helped launch the cable network Current.

Its goal was to “encourage the active participation of young people as citizen journalists.”

In support of this network, Gore stated, “We are about empowering this generation of young people in the 18-34 population to engage in a dialogue of democracy and to tell their stories of what’s going on in their lives, in the dominant medium of our time. The Internet opened a floodgate for young people, whose passions are finally being heard, but TV hasn’t followed suit.”

The network’s aim was to give young people a voice, and to democratize television.

What is “Democratizing

Television?” Jenkins suggests that to democratize television, (just one example of media convergence), a network would have to be democratic in the following:

Content: focusing on the kinds of information that a democratic society needs to function

Effect: mobilizing young people to participate more fully in the democratic process

Values: fostering rational discourse and a stronger sense of social contract

Process: expanding access to the means of media production and distribution

The New York Times’ Marshall Stella said, “..television began as a one way street winding from producers to consumers, but that street is now two-way. A man with one machine (a TV) is doomed to isolation, but a man with two machines (a TV and a computer) can belong to a community.”

Jenkins on Convergence

Convergence doesn’t depend on any specific medium

It represents a paradigm shift – a move from medium-specific information to information that flows across many channels of media

It supports increased interdependence of communication systems, and at the same time, multiple ways of accessing media content

It enhances the complex relationships between corporate media and participatory culture

Despite the idealistic idea to “democratize television” as a way to empower the public, convergence also just makes sense for the media industry.

Convergence creates multiple ways of selling content to consumers

It cements consumer loyalty

It changes the way people think of their relationship to media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Questions1. How do you feel about your relationship with media and media convergence? Do you like being uber-connected, or do you sometimes think it’s too much?

2. How do you feel the Internet, namely Facebook, Twitter and blogs affect your feelings about politics?

3. What role do you think President Obama's presence in popular culture played in winning him two terms in office?