Propaganda & Mass Persuasion: 05/01/2011 - 05/08/2011

Thursday, May 05, 2011

"You Tube Presidency" 2009 by Virginia Heffernan

Barack Obama and his team know that Internet is the way of the world and the way of the future. For example a year ago , when he delivered his speech on the race, his "New media" Campaign uploaded their own version on to You Tube. This video alone got over 1.5 million views.
He now his an entire staff devoted to this "New Media Campaign"

Obama has recently been seen all over the web on sites like "You Tube , Joost , Daily Motion and Hulu" (to name a few). He takes his "offline" charisma and puts it "online:, which this article states that it takes an "extensive personal production team".

President Obama used these sites to his advantage. especially You tube. "Where as a You Tube search for Ex- President George bush turns up mostly parodies (like shown in last class - Obamas's (search) is stacked with videos approved and uploaded by the campaign or administration. Clips like the president signing of a public land protectors bill on Mach 30th , that would usually only be shown on C Span. And Obama's"Your Weekly Address" which is most viewed and subscribed are among the many videos that pop up when his name is being searched.

"The YouTube Presidency"

When you type in “President Barack Obama” into YouTube, millions of videos come up; most of these videos have been uploaded by BarackObamadotcom, or whitehouse.  Obama has a team of people (called the White House new-media-operations team) that are in charge of uploading certain videos for the President as well as sending the links out to millions of people on their mailing list. A YouTube search for “Barack Obama would (for the most part) be videos approved and uploaded by his new-media team, whereas “President George Bush” would be parody, videos of TV news clips, and videos mocking him such as “George Bush Idiot”.

From the start, Obama and his team understood that going viral was the best way to campaign. He carefully designed videos that were great for his image by choreographing speeches and interviews infused with applause. 

“And while Obama’s campaign speeches weren’t delivered expressly for YouTube the way the Oval Office addresses are delivered for TV, the versions of those speeches millions of us saw were tailored to the site, with titles, omissions, crowd cutaways, highlight footage and a dozen other manipulations of sound and image that affected the impression they made.  When Obama delivered his speech on race a year ago, the campaign uploaded, for example, its own version of the speech; it was cleaner and more elegantly produced that the CNN version, and it has been played more than 1.5 million times” (Heffernan)

Some critics say that this new-media team takes away from the emotion that thrives at live events.  Something is “lost” when Presidents are always prepared with a speech and a team of experts rather than a more casual interview.  But would these critics rather a biased article written by a journalist, or a short sound bite followed by commentary from the press?  By uploading speeches onto YoutTube, the viewer can have their own opinion of the speech and are encouraged to express their views by commenting on the video.  Even though the shooting and spreading of the videos are very closely controlled by the new-media team, the public is free to have their own opinion and state them on the YouTube page.

Barak Obama "The Youtube Presidency"





In today's society technology plays a major role in our daily lives. To live in this world and in America especially it is imperative to keep up with the times. President Obama and his team have mastered the benefits of technology with his video chat and YouTube channel along with other source of Internet communication such as twitter etc.

Its a brilliant method. Not everyone reads the newspapers or do they watch TV. Allowing multiple ways for citizen to stay up to date with the President and The White House events is great. Some "old fashionistas" may disagree but it is clear that before Obama was elected president he used these same methods and it worked for him then as it will continue now. Speaking from personal encounters with friends and associates, there are a number of people that actually like the new ways of media combined with politics. With the weekly address, Americans are able to constantly be informed rather than being left in the dark.


- Anjelica Jones T/Th 2:50

Obama Makes History in Live Internet Video Chat

President Obama was the first President to have a live internet video chat. The chat was based on the public submitting questions, and the President would answer the most popular questions. Over 3.6 million votes were cast, and the top questions was; whether legalizing marijuana might stimulate the economy by allowing the government to regulate and tax tax the drug. President Obama responded "the answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow the economy." The question about marijuana took up most of the video chat. Robert Gibbs (press secretary) felt that advocates for legalizing marijuana had racked up votes for the question. Obama also discussed briefly that he intended to announce soon what kind of help his administration would give the auto industry; "we will provide them some help" Obama stated. "Thursday's session, which had been advertised on the White House Web site since Tuesday, is the latest example of efforts by the Obama team to replicate its creative use of the Internet in the election campaign" (New York Times). Obama has been going through all types of media (although he was trying to bypass the news media) trying to make the case for his economic agenda (i.e.. Jay Leno, 60 Minutes). The president describe this as an experiment; Macon Phillips, the White House director of new media said that he was pleased with the experiment; "anytime you ask if people will engage and 100,000 people show up, its a big deal." Some say the forum had a "canned feel", they felt the the public tend to be more polite in their questions rather than news reporters.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Not only was he born in Hawaii, He's Funny...


Holding a position in the government is beyond important, and to be taken extremely seriously. Especially when the position is head of state; The President. As many can probably agree president Obama has gone through it all (As i'm sure every other president has), from low points to high points especially recently with the capture and victory of Osama Bin Laden's death. However, somewhere in between serious matters time to address those who seem to have malicious intent, always deems important. After weeks of attacks from Republican Donald Trump denouncing President Obama's American citizenship, the President willingly displayed his Hawaiian birth-certificate in front of a group of his counterparts during, the annual White house Correspondents dinner. Along with the display came a round of jokes during his speech, even Trump had to laugh at. Looking back at President Bush's 2008 Correspondents dinner where he stood in front of his audience with another actor by his side mocking his twin, the Presidents show a wittier, humorous side many aren't used to seeing.
As Obama indirectly and directly addressed Trump with matters such as Trump focusing on the serious issues, from whether the moon landing actually happened to "where are Biggie and Tupac?"; chuckles and laughs circulated the room and the camera crew focused on the only other star of the room (Aside from Obama) Trump.

Video:

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

"Beat the press does the White House have a Blacklist: by Nicholas Confessore .2002

Since day one, even before ex- President George w. Bush was sworn in as president. His aide Karl Rove had distaste for one of Washington Posts White House Correspondents Dana Milbank. He even asked the Washington Post to reconsider their decision of making him one of their own.

“The Post declined”.

Dana Milbank is Bush administrations least favorite journalist. He covered a lot of storied that questioned Bush’s work which lead to making Bush’s life and presidency difficult. The stories he covered included Bush’s decision to abandon school vouchers and his administration’s plan to exempt the Salvation Army from state and local anti discrimination laws (just to name a few). That last plan brought major embarrassment to Bush’s aide Karl Rove because he played a central part in that discussion.

This article showed how the Bush administration (as well as any other administration) manages the press. The press is more cooperative and nice to journalists who make them “look good”, like Washington Post’s very own Bob Woodward’s work. Milbank on the other hand gets the bad end of that stick.

Does the White house have a black list?
Its safe to say that the White House may not have a physical one “Blacklist” but based on the Dana Milbank there is definitely a unwritten one.

A critique of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

Standard Operating Procedure is a 2008 film that was directed by the acclaimed journalist Errol Morris. Morris documents the incedent(s) at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that shocked Americans and Foreigners alike.
This documentary depicts (and interviews) the actions of the soldiers who were involved in cases of perceived torture. In this documentary there are several soldiers who were present during the various torture “sessions.”

To name a few of the soldiers; Megan Graner, Christopher Bradley, Javal Davis and Sarah Denning. One of the soldiers comments that they are going to be receiving some of the Higher-Ups in Saddam Hussein’s regime, Some of these higher-ups are depicted on the deck of playing cards that are used by the soldiers to help tell the difference.

One soldier, Janis Paskinski said “Once were entered Fallujah we smelled the death, we smelled the destruction and rotting flew and we said to ourselves; it’s for real now!”
Paskinski goes on to say, “ In room 1A and 1B Everyone’s naked and wearing women’s panties and I said to myself, something is not right here.”

Even if these soldiers managed to say something, they would be shut down almost instantly by superior officers. Since most “interrogation techniques” were done by Non-governmental Agencies (NGA’s) officers in the regular military have almost no say in what goes on. Lance Corporal Lyndiee England says, “she thought it was weird example set, when there are common thieves being treated as they were higher-up’s.
These men were just taxicab drivers, but he was jailed for some trivial offence and the embarrassment he suffered.

“playing with his dick with a baton and simulated molestation; I don’t care where you are, this is molestation!” Tim Duggan, an intelligence officer said, “Out of all these pictures, no one noticed that these acts were being committed?” Duggan called these soldiers “unprofessional shucks, who tarnish America’s image”

I believe Duggan’s statement because, it takes only a few immoral and unprofessional “soldiers” to ruin the reputation of a whole country in the eyes of the world.

After these images of the detainees were published, soldiers died in the field, because of these horrible images. The insurgents were fueled with such furry and rage over these images of torture.

With the population growing in Abu Ghraib, due to in part of the street sweeps. American Soldiers were trying to purge Iraq of the remnants of the Bathist regime. These wide sweeps brought more and more people into Abu Ghraib; one day there was 200 prisoners and the next day there is close to 1,500 prisoners.

You do not have enough accredited staff to watch over them, so you need low level Soldiers.
In one picture, there was a prisoner they called “Gilligan” who was accused of killing a CID agent. “Gilligan” was photographed in a shower, blindfolded and hooked up to some kind of electrical wires with a mock battery. A soldier said,” this was just for show, none of this was real, it was just a joke”

The world was not laughing at their joke, it needlessly endangered the lives of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen and outraged the world and it also weakened the United States’ credibility in the eyes’ of the world.
Regardless if it was real or not was the point, but these kinds of actions go on at all is the point.

The documentary was gripping and powerful. The best part of this documentary was that it’s a true story; you couldn’t make this stuff up.

Bush Against The Media





Here you see an image of President Bush addressing a room full of press. Standing firm yet with a slight distance between himself and the podium. This can also be said about his relationship with the media. Bush had a relatively distant relationship with the press and felt it should stay that way. In Ken Auletta's article " Fortress Bush: How the White House Keeps the Press at Distance - and Under Control" (2004), his love-hate relationship with the press is addressed.
In a planned press barbecue that the President gave, he was more lax with the way he answered questions of the media. His most honest view about the press came about when asked how he knows what the public thinks if you're so standoffish with the media. His response “You’re making a huge assumption—that you represent what the public thinks.” The press in his mind is irrelevant because he, being an elected official, is what the public believes in. Not the minds of the journalists that report on his doings. Andrew Card, Bush's Chief of Staff, remarked “They don’t represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election. . . . I don’t believe you have a check-and-balance function.” This may be how Bush coped with all of the negative press that surrounded him upon entering the Iraq War.
On the other hand, Bush is deemed personally likable from certain members of the press. He gives them nicknames and seems like a fairly charming man when not in the spotlight. However, he still views the press as leaning moreso to the left so in that way they are deemed the enemy. Only out to get the best headlines. A tactic the Bush administration uses in talking to the press is to give them specific talking points and to engage them as little as possible. That way, the administration gets to say exactly what they want to say without the fear of being questioned about it. Card and Bush justify this way of thinking by saying it is not their job to give the public information, it is the job of the press. This is contradictory to what was previously said because Bush stated that they represent what the public thinks. If the administration does not work with the press then how will the public get the correct information. This only works best for the administration because they can still say they gave info, in all actuality never giving up what is important.
“It’s not our job to be sources,” he replied, flushing. “The taxpayers don’t pay us to leak! . . . I feel strongly that people who get paid taxpayer dollars should be doing their job. If their job is like Ashley’s”—Ashley Snee, a member of the press staff, who sat in on the interview—“if their job is to talk to the press, they should talk to the press. If their job is to help develop policy, it’s to talk to the people who are involved in that policymaking process; they don’t get paid to talk to the press. . . . Our job is not to make your job easy.”
The Bush administration clearly thought of the media as beneath them and not worthy in garnering the public's support. In their minds, what they say is best because they represent what the public wants, not what the press asks. Even if the public is clearly stating that they don't agree.