Photoshop for Democracy - 4th Hour

What is the main argument the author is making?
The main argument that the author is making is that “popular culture matters politically”, or in other words, the concept of convergence extends beyond popular culture and consumerism and can affect the political sphere as well.

What support does he offer?
He offers support for this argument with five examples. The first is the Howard Dean campaign during the 2004 presidential election. Jenkins demonstrates how his campaign utilized the internet in innovative viral and grassroots ways. In addition to campaigning through the more mainstream and traditional media of television, the Howard Dean campaign also used the internet to start a blog, create a place for supporters to gather online, among others. The second example is an analysis of websites like meetup.com and moveon.org. Meetup.com allows people with common interests, such as a political candidate in the case of Howard Dean, to get together. Moveon.org was created to get people to move past an obsession with Bill Clinton’s sex life and focus on the country. It engaged in various contests that called for people to create short films explaining why Bush shouldn’t be re-elected. The discussion of those two websites led to support through the popular use of photoshop by ordinary people to create images making a political statement. Next, Jenkins tackles the question of whether making politics into popular culture itself affects consumers to be more politically engaged. He points out that young voters feel connected to shows like The Daily Show, and points to an attack on CNN by Jon Stewart in which he accuses the network of being on the side of politicians and corporations instead of helping to inform the public on the topic of politics. He follows that discussion, with support through the fictional world of Alphaville, a community within the Sims Online game. Within the game, players have created a way to self govern themselves, and Jenkins argues that a game is never just a game and what is enacted and learned within Alphaville politics is likely having some effect on the citizens playing the game and how they see and engage in politics, especially children. His last example of support is how the idea of digital democracy can be used to create an ‘achievable utopia’ by which convergence would lead to a better informed population and participation in the political process would be the norm. However, he also points out that convergence has also led to a large political separation between the red and the blue that can be mended through coming out of “digital enclaves” to talk through differences and find commonalities.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?
Overall I agree with what Jenkins says in the chapter primarily because my own personal involvement with politics is consistent with his argument. I get a lot of my exposure to politics through various popular culture media. I could relate to each of the examples that were given throughout the chapter and feel that in the future I would be more likely to become a more conscious political citizen through engagement with various forms of popular culture that have converged with politics, than more traditional means.

Is the author's support relevant and believable?
I also agree with him because of the support he used. His examples really made sense with his argument. He was able to cite things that related specifically to politics and popular culture in a variety of different capacities such as an online game, an actual campaign, etc. Each example was right in line with his argument and didn’t really have a tendency to stray in one direction or the other. By using examples that had a nice balance of both politics and popular culture to illustrate his points, his argument became much more plausible. Had he focused entirely in one direction, or used outdated examples, I would have been less likely to believe what he was arguing.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election? In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?
Throughout the chapter, Jenkins mentions several times how the convergence of popular culture and politics increased the number of voters in the 2004 election. I would assume then, that as technology has continued to advance and convergence has become more mainstream and popular, that the combination of popular culture and politics would again engage more citizens to go out and vote in the election. In addition, I believe that the evidence cited in this chapter as having affected the 2004 election would have served as a point of reference for the candidates this time around. It would seem to me that the campaign staff for each candidate would have looked back to see what things worked, such as the use of meetup.com, and which things didn’t, such as relying too heavily on the internet, and employing those tactics to be more successful during the campaign. Ultimately, this election seemed different because in my opinion, it seemed like there was a higher emphasis placed on engaging with popular culture during the campaign. One major example that stands out in my mind was when President Obama appeared on The Daily Show during his campaign.

What is digital democracy?
Digital democracy is the concept by which technological media, such as the internet, are used by the public to further the democratic process. As evidenced by this chapter, this can be done in many ways. Some examples would be, websites making it easy for various candidate supporters to get together and organize rallies, online fantasy games preparing children to be more engaged political citizens when they are older, and the use of photoshop and other computer application to create images and videos that support some type of political agenda.

Discuss your understanding of the term culture jamming.
Culture jamming is when people take popular images, videos, etc. and manipulate them to send a different message. Culture jamming most likely manifests itself in the form of satire, humor, and/or irony with the intent to prompt discussion, create awareness, poke fun, etc about the topic of whatever was manipulated. Some examples from the chapter include, a viral video edited to look like a trailer for the television the Apprentice in which George Bush was a contestant being kicked off, several videos of a Howard Dean speech that depicted him “howling as he gropes Janet Jackson, shouting at a kitten, or simply exploding from too much pent up passion” (Jenkins 214).

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.
In my opinion, based on what I’ve read in the chapter, fan culture and politics can come together in two ways. The first would be through existing fan cultures. Jenkins discusses in his analysis of the presidential election of Alphaville, how the politics generated in fictional worlds can prepare those engaged in it for a more effective political citizenry in real life. The second would be that politics itself can create its own fan culture. This was evidenced by the disctinct separation of red and blue states, as well as how groups can come together online to create fan cultures based around certain officials, candidates or causes. Each of these connections ultimately has the power to influence its participants to engage more with politics and become more active in the democratic process.

How does the idea of "play(ing) with power on a microlevel" (p. 239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?
“Playing with power on a microlevel” was discussed in this reading with respect to the self governing that emerged as part of the Alphaville community in conjunction with the Sims Online game. It discusses how children are largely powerless in the world of news and politics. They are not familiar with the language used, are not eligible to vote, and consequently do not feel like an audience acknowledged by the news. The world of fantasy, however, allows this group to exert control and potentially prepare them for a more engaged role in society when they eventually do feel like they are a part of the news and political worlds. The chapter talks about the presidential election of Alphaville in which the two candidates were a twenty one year old and a seventh grader each crusading for things such as increasing information against groups trying to scam players out of money, etc. It argues that these fantasy worlds allow children to rise up and exert more control and have more influence than they ever would enjoy in a more traditional place like their high schools. Ultimately, when issues of corruption came out, it raised many questions about the lessons about politics children were learning in fantasy worlds.

This same type of issue was raised last week when we discussed power struggles within the fan world of Harry Potter. Children were able to enter this fantasy world and have control and exert power throughout various fan communities, however adult groups, such as Warner Brothers, educators, and some religious groups were standing in their way and exposing them to a darker side of power and control such as when children were being sued over their Happy Potter fan fiction web sites by Warner Brothers executives.

However, although it raises the question of what type of lessons children are learning about real world politics within their fantasy play, the chapter from this week as well as from last week point out what good can come from this type of negative exposure. For example, with respect to Harry Potter a teenager rose up and created a group that ultimately got Warner Brothers to drop their lawsuits, and the middle school presidential candidate of Alphaville, as well as other kids of Alphaville, who “consistently described the events as motivating them to go out and make a difference in their own communities, to become more engaged in local and national elections, and to think of a future when they might become candidates and play the political game on different terms” (Jenkins 232).