Today’s political environment resembles a mildly well organized circus. The citizen-generated content Jenkins credits with this circus, I believe, is really offering a unique opportunity to further develop political participation and understanding.
At the end of his essay Jenkins does mention, maybe this new content can move us toward “deeper political engagement”. The article gives me the sense that Jenkins thinks the ability of non-serious news and/or amateurs to reach a large political audience could spell doom for our political system. However, in the history of our political system, technology has always effected voter turn out and campaign process.
At one point a good train and loud voice were desirable of a candidate.. Later it was a firm radio voice, and then JFK and his pretty face. The point is, our political system is designed to change with the times and in the words of Dylan, ‘these times are a changin’.
Jenkins cited statistics regarding TV’s efforts to educate voters. The networks are still the largest provider of political information; however, comedy news is slowly catching ground. Shows, like Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’, are providing political news and information to a growing number of people. In the past four years this number of people has grown 9 percent to 21 percent overall. I don’t think young adults, like me, are watching these shows simply for their humor, and as Jenkins mentions, they offer more live coverage than ABC, CBS and NBC.
My largest critique of Jenkins’ position in that he has concentrated on the wrong medium of information. Most young eligible voters would just as easily watch the Daily Show from Comedy Central’s website and simultaneously have a live web feed from a political convention, going at the same time.
If politicians want to get their voices heard and give some more stability to the political process; they need to embrace change in their political process and campaign strategies to utilize the new technology. YouTube is an example of bettering the political process through technology. Earlier this year CNN hosted a debate in which the Democratic Presidential candidates were given video questions from YouTube members across the country; YouTube is free for its members. I think using YouTube for those types of processes is exactly the kind of effective, advanced, grassroots technique that Donald Green would approve of.
Green had an different opinion about citizen-generated content. He felt that the comedy shows and MTV “vote parties” have little effect on voters. I would agree that those TV shows aren’t as opinion forming as the numbers show. However, the accessibility of online forms, videos, graphics, etc. can shift the opinions of a vast numbers of voters, in a short amount of time, with little too no cost. That can ROCK the VOTE.
Also, as any newspaper savvy person will tell you, the average reading ability of an American is rather low. This does not mix well with complicated politics. Our new media provides a great deal of information, some complicated and some simple. This allows someone to gain a political understanding without feeling overwhelmed or stupid and in response, simply not voting. I’ve always thought this illustration explain a very complex justice system in very simple terms, JUSTICE
Wow, I found this video after that last paragraph about simplification and I think its perfect, Hilary vs. Obama. The video covered nearly every issue in the campaign between Hilary and Obama, along with all the negative issues. Mixed together it all sounds like the mess it really is. I think showing this race as the name calling battle it is, is useful for voters. We need fresh perspectives on politics and a fresh method of storytelling. This video does an excellent job of telling the campaign’s story to young voters.
No comments:
Post a Comment