Politics and Viral Videos

A brief note before I begin my post: Viral videos earn such a title because they become popular via being "spread" through internet sharing by email messages or popular internet video sites.

Earlier this week, I was watching "This Week in Politics" on CNN (I am a CNN junkie) and I came across a story that was covering the ways that politicians and political "activists" are viral videos in the 2008 presidential elections. Interestingly enough, CNN did not give its opinions about the posts it highlighted, but it did present a variety of examples to evenly show how Democratic and Republican candidates, supporters, and individuals and groups with special interests were using the medium to influence public opinion.

One site profiled was LUNATICS AND LIARS a site that presents satirical and humorous videos about American politics. This site is a bank of political viral videos from a number of other sites, so viewers can view not only the video submitted to L and L, but also links to more viral videos on other similar sites. On the site, the video cartoon "Oh McCain" was featured in the story. As the title suggests, the video is about Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his perceived policy and economic doublespeak. A line from the cartoon music video "What you keep calling straight talk is double talk to me" clearly sums up the video's message.




There are an varied abundance of humorous political videos on this site which offer opinions that would appeal to supporters of either political candidate and opponents alike. Not all the videos are cartoons, some are mashups and edits of movies, etc. For example, there is the parody of the film Rocky III and Barack Obama's South Carolina primary speech, creating "Barocky!"




and "Hercubush" which is a mashup of an early era film about the trials of Hercules and the current president's stance on freedom and foreign affairs.