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This blog has been created to support a course on American Studies at Moscow State University at the Department of Area Studies. The aim of the course is to reveal the clash between the values of democracy and social and political values of the U.S. society today.
Recreating the President
ReplyDeleteThis may be a little irrelevant (or more relevant to my previous post), BUT, speaking of blog disadvantages…
I am still pondering on the pitfalls of blogs and other social-networking-PR, now in relations to “personal” content of president’s blogs. What we tend to define as major advantages of the blog (the “bringing the president closer to people”, the popularization of the image and the institution etc.), may turn out to be tricky and have hidden pitfalls.
Profiles on twitter, flickr etc, “darling” video-posts about the president’s hobbies (check Medvedev’s blog – do you really care what kind of camera he uses for taking pictures?) supposedly make the president “just like us”, mere mortals. But is that what we actually want? Do people/prospective voters want to see a political leader as being “just like them”? Doubtful. Even more doubtful in Russia. It’s the president, not a movie star.
First and foremost, I personally dislike any implications of “the powers that be” (власть имущие) being “just like us” in any respects. The assumption is highly controversial, if not inherently wrong. Moreover, I believe whenever a notion is being repeatedly imposed and propagated, it means it’s probably arbitrary or simply false.
But perhaps the assumption in question does not have to be true. Perhaps we don’t need it at all. Recreating the image of the president in such a way may be completely unnecessary. Perhaps, we don’t want someone “just like us” to govern us. Of course, all people are defined by common fears, insecurities and weaknesses. It's human. But it is this image of an outstanding, intelligent, experienced person, devoid of such insecurities that attracts people (voters) in a potential leader. That’s what makes a political persona appealing and creditable.
I’m in no way endorsing elitism (on the contrary, I concur with anti-elitism apologists). I sincerely believe that “humanizing” the president is good. Let’s just not take it too far and state questionable ideas as facts.
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ReplyDeleteBy the way…
ReplyDeleteOf course, social sites have a doubtful effect on people’s mind, I agree with Dasha. But in my opinion the big point in blogging is that unfortunately in some ways this system of “political propaganda” is inappropriate for our country where there are practically no difference between political programs of parties and we have only one dominant party, on the contrary, for the countries like USA this is essential. I’ve heard about a survey where people were asked about the differences between the major points in political programs of democrats and republicans, about 32 % of them just couldn’t note more than one difference, and on some blogs we can see a lot of people debating about this or that political issue. We can not deny the fact that in America where there is a big rate of those who consider voting as a meaningless point in their lives, social sites have shifted in all directions the connection between voters and politicians. I’ve found two interesting articles connected with social networking and politics, which probably you’ll find interesting to look at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/02/AR2008110202325.html
http://www.infoworld.com/t/architecture/social-networking-sites-next-big-thing-in-politics-307
“It just makes sense [for politicians] to be there". "This is influencer marketing."
“In 2000, about 20 percent of Americans went online to interact with the presidential campaign, according to Pew. Four years ago, it grew to 37 percent. Earlier this year, Pew released a study saying that 46 percent of Americans have used the Internet to get their news, watch videos and share their thoughts on the race. By the end of the longest presidential campaign in U.S. history, Pew's predicts that figure will top 50 percent.”
Blogging provides an alternative view on the candidates, unlike traditional media whose views are of a mainstream dominant group , there are usually some dry facts or nasty things about politicians. Blogging helps to “design” properly the information , so it is not too formal ,and a candidate itself could “interact” with his voters (I put it in quotes because blogs are still somehow qualified and sorted out , it is just represented as if they are not ) Also Politicians as bloggers are not as retractable as professional journalists ,for example . It is a good PR for politicians, they can show their personalities from a different point of view .
ReplyDeleteI also think that blogging provides an interaction with people that traditional forms of communication in politics (I mean pressconferences, official addresses to people ) cannot match.
I support Masha’s view about American attitude to blogging , I think that Americans are more than ready for this kind of interaction with politicians .They have practiced different election campaigns , other forms of communication with politicians (radio, TV). Besides that , on my opinion there is nothing more democratic than “blogging” , it is already a new level of equality. And we all know how Americans feel about democracy and equality among people.
Freedom to innovate,create, and share ideas is critical to development in modern politics. That is why US government now try to utilize information and communications technology to achieve its goals. Active use of blogs and web2.0 changed the procedure of the elections and the presidential campaighn itself. This available technology became appropriate for local needs and conditions. First of all blogs should be AFFORDABLE for people to use them. Also most part of americans have CAPACITY to use this technology and know how to do it. The LANGUAGE of blogs was Englishavailable content). People had CONFIDENCE in this technology and understood itd imlication. Local and state LAWS were favourable for its usage. But the last and most important are favourable economic environment and POLITICAL WILL of the US. These are the main ctiteria of creating political blogs.
ReplyDelete