FINAL EXAM p2: Obama Revelations

1. MEDIA

In 2006-2007, facebook, twitter, youtube, and countless other social mediums were finally being used to their full potential as networking/mass communication engines. These sites were not just platforms for kids and fun now—they had become realized as an invaluable tool for any kind of business, group, event, when used as a way to communicate with fans, customers, etc…
Obama’s use of online networking sites was bold (would we take a candidate seriously who used youtube and twitter to promote himself?), but obviously worked well, considering his large hip-to-technology audience. In Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, the author explains this as “how the bias of a medium sits heavy…over a culture,” (18), telling our reliance on social sites for information.
Plus, he had campaign “songs”—he’s gotta be a good guy if he listens to music like we do right? A musical intro to a speech heightens our emotional limbic brain—a good persuasion tactic

2. TIMING

When Barack Obama began running for president, there was a general consensus that this would not be just another American election. What I don’t think our country has fully realized until after his victory is how Obama has changed the campaign process completely. Like Paul Street describes in his book Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, Obama’s success was in part due to his well-timed decision to run for president. While Street lists reasons like what other politicians were doing at the time, allowing Barack the chance, another huge factor in this “timing” theory is where our communication technology was and how it was being developed and used. In Street’s book, according to Washington Post writer Liza Mundy, at the time the Democratic party was looking for a new candidate with newness/youth, someone from the mid-west to balance their “reign”, needed to get that open senate seat, Michigan gov. Jennifer Granholm wasn’t up for reelection, and Obama was running for that seat. So it was simple—a Democratic Party Official said, “ ‘So Obama it was,’” (Street 24).


3. LOGO/TYPE
The use of his logo was an easy solution that I don’t think any other president has actually used before…has anyone else really had a logo (bumper stickers with your name on it don’t count)? This, along with the consistent use of typography that accompanied his “brand”? Brilliant. Honestly, that’s just brilliant. Wikipedia has a nice run down of all the reasons Obama succeeded in the media, and there are many articles on Obama’s media presence, and I found this great one-liner on a blog-ish type article stating: “We are, afterall, Barack Obama's greatest customers.”
Image courtesy of DesignForObama.org
We don’t want to listen to the issues anymore. We want to see something pretty, something catchy, and something we can stick on our laptops, binders, and car windows that’s visually “cool”. In Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he starts off with discussing our shortened attention span, as Americans, since the time before TV and radio and our need for seeing something “pretty.” He gives Nixon’s example who “claimed he lost an election because he was sabotaged by make-up men,” (Postman 4)—and that was only the start of our superficial ways of seeing politics.
His campaign has proven to other politicians, that, for better or for worse, if you want the American people to like you (for any reason or no reason at all), you must level with them online—create a brand, hire a marketing professional or two, hire a good designer, and develop your PR. You are, in fact, selling yourself to us.

4. "BLACK" PRESIDENT
Image courtesy of UDoTheDishes.com
Apparently, Obama is our first black president. I only say apparently, because his “black-ness” is sort of disputed. Paul Street recognizes this in his book as well and his point is: while his skin color drew attention and appeal from many white and black voters in the US, his stance on policies speak differently. There’s a majority of black citizens in the US that share similar positions on certain issues, and Obama tends to be the complete opposite. While Obama supports his fellow African-American’s, he also is tough on the welfare issue—which many inner city blacks use the welfare system.
To some American’s, a “black” president isn’t the color of the candidate’s skin, but their supposed stance on the issues. Toni Morrison called Clinton the “first black president,” because he stood similarly on certain issues that many of our black population did. He drew a lot of support from our African-American communities that way—with Obama, we are only seeing the way he looks and not the way he thinks. The thing is, both Clinton and Obama believe that inner city African-Americans have few people to blame for their own lives.

5. CELEB APPEAL

Along with being president, Obama has become a celebrity—yes just like the Hollywood kind. My #1 and #3 revelations are evidence/causes of this. When you’re branded and are my facebook friend/I follow you on twitter, you have stepped out of the realm of “boring politics” and now I’ll listen. The amount of articles I have read on “Obama’s Secret Hobby,” or “Michelle’s New Kitten Heels,” is outstanding. I actually have to search for the news, instead of it being right in front of me.
Though newspaper have changed too since the days of the “typographic mind” (Postman 30), they are still a good source for the legitimate news…but Censored 2011 says that “daily newspaper reading in the US has declined from 58 percent in 1993 to 34 percent in 2008,” (Censored 356),” so where are we getting our news? We fill up on info-tainment and then have no room/interest in the real issues. I’m not saying this is Obama’s fault—we read what we want to read.

6. PEACE CANDIDATE?
Obama is gonna stop the war! Obamma is gonna bring our troops home!
Well…it was sort of half true.
Like Paul Street said Obama never claim to be any kind of anti-war—he’s “no peace candidate,” (Street 139), but for some reason his “Hope” and “Change” campaign felt like an anti-war, peace campaign to most Americans. While many troops stationed in Iraq have come home, we are still in the midst of an “war”. Obama isn’t much different than Bush—he knows that sometimes we must use “unilateral force” to protect our country. I’m unsure where Obama was tagged the “peace candidate,” but Ron Paul was the only true peace candidate in the election.


7. PLAIN FOLK APPEAL
A useful way our President appealed to the public in his campaign was by using a persuasive method called “Plain Folk”. We need someone to relate to—we want to believe you when you say you’re “just a regular Joe (Plumber Joe?).” I’m still unsure how Obama managed to pull that one off—maybe because he was so new without a long political history. Obama has a lot of money, he went to Harvard, he wrote a book that was published…
In Street’s book an interesting point is quoted and that’s ’…for a political leader to get things done, he or she should ideally be ahead of the curve, but not too far ahead,’ ” (Street 165)—this is exactly what we’re all looking for. Oh, and I thought this was pretty funny…

8. PERFECT[LY TAILORED] SPEECHES

Barack is known for his drawing in of diverse crowds for his campaign speeches. Crucial to getting the most votes, he strove to capture the attention and votes of all different kinds of voters. Obviously any candidate wants to do this, but Obama had a way of sort-of “tailoring” his speeches to the group he was talking to, as Street recognizes in his book. How can you do this without changing your viewpoints for every crowd? Simple Solutions. This is actually one persuasive technique Obama used consistently during his campaign—though it could have just been that vagueness was Obama’s safety. Postman captures this idea in his Peek-a-Book World chapter—we want bullet points, not detailed explanations. Postman’s also discusses The Typographic Mind explaining that the Age of Exposition has ended and the Age of Show Business has taken over (Postman 63). We are now in an “Image-centered culture,” (Postman 61), where learning from television is different from learning from reading. Television lets us sample Obama’s bullet points, between admiring him and listening to his pre-speech music. If we were to read about his plans we would find them much too vague to make a voting decision.

9. BIG MONEY
Obama said he wouldn't take money from big corporate. He promised this.
Well....he sorta lied. During his fundraising, he accepted lots of money from enormous companies like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. An article discussing Obama's "Lobbyist Line" says that the President has a different definition of "accepting money" and that, actually, he accepts money from big corporate (including many Oil companies).


10. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN
Street claims that when Obama "peppers his speeches" (Street 171) with an idealized vision of American, the president is actually shadowing over our imperialistic and violent history. Is Obama really trying to cover up American's dirty not-so-secret secret? I don't think so--he is just being patriotic...which is a great way to get crowds all riled up at speeches. Obama played the patriot card well during his campaign. Though he was questioned about his lack of an American flag pin (semantics? just forgot?), he has always had a way to make a crowd hopeful about our country, instead of seeing a grim future.

media meditation four: oh i get it!

Sometimes I need to look for inspiration - I know...shouldn't it just come to me, the graphic designer? Unfortunately, that's not the case when I am expected to "be creative" everyday...impossible, sorry. I found an extremely inspiring website that collects logos. Not just any identity though, the standards for Logo Faves are that it has to be both complex and simple. All the logos are more than one thing, while maintaining one shape.


CFO Cycling Team
Because a dolphin fin is a very recognizable element, the designer does not include the entire dolphin. Less is More.
Sounds bars indicating music--again less is more, with a small element of the club in the logo.

Sky of Love, an organization that helps out orphans in Ghana. The plane represents the delivery of medicines, foods, and water to Ghana.
You have probably seen this one before.

This describes some recent trends in logo design - I bet you'll think of one you've seen for each trend in here.


Identities that make you say, "i get it! oh i like that, i LIKE that," which is definitely what you want for your product. If your branding is spot on, that will carry your product so much easier than just relying on it's quality. We are all suckers for good packaging.

media meditation three: thefacebook vs. harvardconnection

Photo from The Social Network webpage.

Ben and I decided we should go see The Social Network last night. It was great - really really great. The actors were awesome and the movie, though about web script and legal actions, put my limbic brain on a trip. The emotional transfer was really strong, because it dealt with friendship and betrayal. The director didn't dare give Zuckerberg any dialogue in which he admits or denies stealing the idea for the website-nor does the film show his feelings on the matter. That probably would have had to include the programmer in the film process, which definitely would not have happened considering the controversy around facebook's dealings. Zuckerberg had multiple responses to the film, which he said he wasn't planning on seeing, but has now seen. Here are his reactions to seeing the film.


So he just likes to build things? Nothing about girls or status? I suppose Hollywood could have easily just exaggerated this point, because it's...well...Hollywood. Mark says he has had the same girlfriend since before facebook, so I suppose that is entirely fabricated. So what else was fabricated?

The ethics of this "stealing" problem is hard to come to just one opinion on. On one hand, it's clear Mark sort of sniped the Winklevoss' ideas, but on the other hand, his idea for the facebook was a bigger and better one - it could grow. Harvard Connection? Seems like it would die out. It's much too exclusive.

I found a great article on this issue that reveals a lot of information about the real (not the movie) scandal. How Facebook Was Founded, an article from the Business Insider site contains dialogue between Mark and his friends and Mark and the Winklevoss' during that time right before facebook was launched. In the end of the Winklevoss lawsuit, it's summed as "dorm-room chit-chat" and the parties settled on 65 million to the brothers.

I'll end with some photos of the real people the film is based off of....because that's what I looked up right when I got home from the movie.

Zuckerberg (Jill Greenberg's photography always makes me laugh)

Photo from GQ.com

The Winklevoss Brothers


Eduardo Saverin

Photo from Internet Techies

Censored 2011: Some finds

3. Further research you've done on this story - links to and/or "embeds" of at least 3 videos, photos, political cartoons, blogs, or articles that relate to your story.

I went to the censored story’s webpage and it was very interesting to see some of the sources of the story. The student researchers and faculty evaluators of this story were from Sonoma State University, the same school that was featured in the previous censored book under the “Schools are more Segregated now than in 1950” story. This school is accused of trying to obtain a wealthy-white reputation and has been ridiculed for their application/acceptance process. This story and my story are closely linked, and I thought that was really odd that they are being accused in one story, and used as sources in the next. Hmmmmm

A video I found where Obama talks about his ideals for education.


I watched a handful of video excerpts, and they all said the same thing…accountability for our school, time to get into the 21st century, and more money to the right places. At least he is consistent.





Some political cartoons I have found as well.

Censored 2011: Is it Censored?

2. The specific results of your LEXIS NEXIS search for articles about your story - is this, in fact, a truly "censored" story? Provide us with as many links as you can to news coverage of this story in the U.S. and global press;

After searching on LEXIS NEXIS, I found that this story isn’t really censored, just sort of under the radar. Obama is a huge supporter of charter schools, regardless of the effects on the traditional public education and teachers unions. It’s the second part of that statement that, I suppose, could be considered “censored.” While it’s pretty public that he is a supporter, the effects his support (and his education chair, Arne Duncan’s support) has aren’t as well known. It isn’t talked about much anyways, considering the other big issues Obama is, or isn’t, dealing with.
One article , from the Christian Science Monitor, touched upon the arguments of teacher’s unions, but then dismissed them stating that “When charters show success, the unions argue it's because the schools skim off the most motivated kids (and their parents). A September study puts that argument to rest. The study examined New York City charter schools that determine admission by lottery.” This could either be just one example, shown to make it seem like the union’s arguments are void, or it could really be just one of many valid examples. It’s tricky to say, because I do know that the Christian Science Monitor is usually a fairly unbiased publication, but their single example is questionable, because charter schools are everywhere in the US, not just NYC.

Another article I found stated the parts of Obama’s education plan —the supposed “censored” parts. He has publically stated that his plan is to base teacher’s pay upon merit and student performance. Armed with “tens of billions of dollars,” to promote charter schools, and said that the Bush administration underfunded the education system. He also says he’ll use the money to support teachers—but the article then goes onto say the support will be based upon student/school performance.

Other short articles were about charter school funding, the downsides to Obama’s education plans, and a Washington Post article about what the president could/should do about education.

Censored 2011: Obama's Charter School Policies Spread Segregation and Undermine Unions

1. 5-7 essential "facts" re: your Project Censored 2011 story, based on your reading of the PC2011 text;

I. Charter schools tend to work against healthy diversity, by race and class, whereas public schools maintain a more equal “playing field” for students of different backgrounds. This is especially true of Charter schools in western states (102-103).

II. Obama’s education plans encourages the growth of charter schools “to undermine public education,” (103) and teacher’s unions. He would like a teacher’s pay to be based upon student performance (test scores).

III. Obama believes that these schools are innovative and will raise a public education. Many teachers and community members think charter schools actually demean public schooling. These schools are also accused of selectively choosing high scoring students to increase their funding and disregarding low-income or “difficult-to-teach students” (103).

IV. Obama, and his secretary of education chair Arne Duncan, lay out the policy of open more charter schools = more money for education, as well as merit-based pay and changing/disregarding teacher’s union policy = more money for education.

V. Arne Duncan has overseen and assisted in the closing of many public schools, and his most famous act was in 2004 when he oversaw the attempted closure of twenty public schools in Chicago. These schools were attended by low-income students “of color,” (105) and did this “with little or no community input,” (105).

VI. There is an immense movement toward privatizing the education system, where entrepreneurs and the Department of Education are “anxious to get their greedy hands on the 5.6 percent of the national economy that education represents,” (106). In their “Race to the Top” the privatization of the education system is causing schools to change their policies and adapt to Duncan’s “four assurances” in order to receive any of his $4.3 billion in funding. These four assurances were not created by teachers. “This is the Wal-Mart model of education,” (108).

midterm reflections: google, power tools, mediums

1. After studying media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned?
I have learned how important it is to be able to understand the difference between info-tainment and entertainment—separate the news from the “news.” The Power Tools are also extremely useful in breaking down any story a medium is telling, which aides in knowing how real/truthful the story is.


2. What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a critical reader, a writer, and a thinker in this class so far?
This class has definitely caused me to reconsider what I believe on television or the Internet. I have realized that my critical reading and thinking skills have improved, because I pay attention to different elements now and am able to see more clearly the messages in anything media-related. The article Is Google Making Us Stupid? caused me to notice when I’m skimming and not reading.


3. What’s one thing you would do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
I’m not sure I would change anything about my first half of the semester. Reading the books and articles has enhanced my knowledge of the dangers of being inattentive to the effects a medium has on me.


4. What’s one thing you would like me to do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
Maybe discuss how forms of social media help/hinder different kinds of careers…I don’t know you pretty much have it covered. The power tools, readings, and blogging all work very well.
I loved this commercial you showed in class...it's horribly sweet, yet commercialism nonetheless.


5. Please comment on the usefulness of the power tools, our quizzes, the course blog, your personal blog, our films, and our books (AMUSING, FEED, MEDIA/ SOCIETY) as learning tools.
The power tool were very, well, powerful in helping me understand the form and content of stories told by a medium, while the quizzes made sure I didn’t forget (obviously). The course blog is a nice change of pace, instead of long group discussions, which can take up time instead of moving onto new things. The personal blog has made me feel more comfortable with blogging, and I feel I will start my own finally. The films were all really interesting to apply our power tools to and the books formed concrete evidence of what we learned in class.