With all of the symbolism of power behind him, Obama is pictured alone in the front page photo, above the fold, from yesterday's NYTimes dead tree issue. That is powerful positioning, in the premo place in the paper.
The media is toying with his image as a leader. Time magazine asked about his experience, putting a halo around him as the cover guy.
It used to be that the major media such as these could hold terrific sway in the idea sphere of our communications. No longer.
Now it is the stories that emerge elsewhere that bubble to the top and perhaps have more power. Who could have thought, even just five years ago, that Saturday Night Live skits and a YouTube Obama Girl would have such political traction, especially as they go viral?
And then you have phones ringing at 3:00 a.m. to cognitively capture attention with the Fear Factor. The Clinton ad that used stock photo footage of a little girl sleeping... a little girl now 17 and a campaign worker for Obama, has become a free ad for the Republicans unwittingly and free promotion for the Obama news angle that has emerged. The phone ad became a media reiteration, fodder for reuse, re imaging, reinterpretation. That ad, as a communication tool, may have a long, long, long, long ring to it: the phone ad that won't hang up; the ring that keeps on ringing. When manipulation by fear becomes funny....well, what does that say?
In an age of remixing, appropriation and reiteration, the ringing phone still has more lives to go. Raw Story has Saturday Night Live's full parady of the 3:00 a.m. red phone ad.
Are people being led by the media elite? Is Saturday Night Live setting the media agenda now that the writer's strike is over? Here's Hotline's take on Hillary and SNL... Gamechanging?
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