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| | Issue #20.17 :: 04/25/2007 - 05/01/2007 | McCain Video Shows YouTube's Election Influence
Also: Kiva.Org, NBC's Decision to Air Va. Tech Videos
| BY DAN COOK
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It’s looking more and more like a YouTube election season after John McCain made his way to the site in a big way last week with comments he made about Iran. Speaking on April 18 at a VFW hall in Murrells Inlet, S.C., McCain was asked about whether the United States might launch air strikes against Iran. McCain responded making a reference to the song “Barbara Ann” by The Beach Boys, saying, “That old, uh, that old Beach Boys song, ‘Bomb Iran.’” He then sang a mock version of the chorus, “Bomb, bomb, bomb … .” Though the comment was clearly made as a joke — McCain’s position is that bombing should only be used as a last resort — the episode highlighted once again how the democratization of media is throwing scripted presidential campaigns off balance. Previous videos that have made waves this election season include an amateur Barack Obama ad that lampooned Hillary Clinton and a video of Sen. Clinton singing the national anthem off-key.
Media Madness has been complaining to friends recently that the phrase “making a difference” is much abused. People use it to mean “making an improvement,” when in fact it means only making a change, which can be either positive or negative. Having said that, we’d like to tell you about the web site kiva.org, through which you can make an improvement in someone’s life if you are so inclined. Here’s the idea: Millions of thriving entrepreneurs in the developing world have viable ideas for businesses but lack easy access to credit from traditional banks. That’s where you come in: Through the web site, you can issue a “microloan” — $100, $500 or $1,000, for example — to a specific entrepreneur. Most loans are for a period of six-12 months, and you’ll get periodic updates on how the business is doing. So far the site has processed more than $5 million in loans from more than 50,000 people.
Speaking of saving the world, who needs anthropologists when you’ve got Bob Geldof? Once known as the singer of The Boomtown Rats, and then as the organizer of Live Aid, these days Geldof is an all-around activist and crusader. His latest venture is a partnership with BBC to create an eight-part TV series called The Human Planet and a web site called the Dictionary of Man. The goal is to “try to film the 900 separate groups of people that anthropologists believe exist,” and by doing so “produce a definitive record of mankind,” according to the BBC. Adds Geldof: “This will be an A to Z of mankind which will catalogue the world we live in now, the people who share this planet, the way we live and the way we adapt to face common and different challenges … Ultimately I suppose in some ways we’re also building the world’s family photo album.”
NBC received much criticism last week for its decision to air videos and photos it received from Virginia Tech killer Seung-hui Cho just two days after the brutal rampage. Detractors said the move was disrespectful toward the victims and played into the hands of other celebrity-hungry psychos who might be considering their own violent acts. Taking a minority view, media blogger Jeff Jarvis instead criticized NBC for airing only the “safest elements of this sick collection.” “It is not journalism’s job to be safe or to make the world safe for our consumption,” he wrote. “It is journalism’s job to tell us uncomfortable truths.” The strongest statement people upset with the decision could make would be to not watch the network. Not surprisingly, people watched in large numbers: NBC’s broadcast soared past ABC and CBS in the top 55 media markets, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Media Madness is a column exploring web sites, TV, video games, blogs, books, media industry news and anything else in the media universe that strikes our fancy. | |
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