Summary - Yes He Can – Barack Obama's Campaign Speech Analysed

Title of article: Yes. He. Can. How a speech and a video helped change the american presidency
Author: Adam Oliver
Publisher: MediaMagazine
Date published: February 2009

Theme: Hyperreality
Politics
Remixing

Summary of text:

The article explores and analyses Barack Obama's famous "Yes We Can" speech and the accompanying video by Will.I.Am, that supported and funded much of the Obama campaign for Presidentship in the USA.

Obama delivered the speech after losing the New Hampshire Primary election to Hillary Clinton in January 2008. Obama's speech was watched by many of the American citizens and the words that Barack Obama and his speech writers wrote were delivered with Obama's famous charisma and deliverance. However it was not the original speech or the original video that made internet sensations but a remix of the famous "Yes We Can" speech by Will.I.Am and accompanying artists that grew to Internet fame.

In February 2008 the musical artist Will.I.Am released a version of Barack Obama's speech onto the Internet through the use of Youtube and Dipdive. Will.I.Am put this speech to music and with the help from accompanying artists, spoke and sang the words for the speech, while Jesse Dylan directed the accompanying video. This video was not a direct production for the Barack Obama's official campaign. However, by the end of March the video reached over 17 billion hits from around the world. People were not just watching the video but also donating to Obama's campaign which lead to Obama's campaign being the richest to stand the for office that the USA has ever seen.

This video was nothing special, it was a very simple piece of work shot entirely with black-and-white, with limited range of shot types and notably lacking any special effects-driven glamour. The choice of black and white, for example, suggests a rejection of the glossy, sophisticated nature of most mainstream political broadcasts; conversely, the limited palette also cleverly implies this video, in contrast, is something rawer, with greater veracity: that this is the word on the street.

Will.I.Am is the first artist to appear in the video singing along with soft playing non-diegetic guitar music. Barack Obama is represented next in the video and he is featured alongside when I am with the use of a split screen. Obama is presented in this way through out the entire video. Oliver argues that this is a method in which to represent Obama as being equal to everyone and create unison with the audience. Oliver reinforces his argument by the fact that all the artists in the video look directly at the camera and thus engaging and connecting with the audience.

The phrase "Yes We Can" become chorus as well as core message and is repeated over and over again, Oliver argued that this is a method in which the message is shared to the audience and the sense of unison is created. Oliver also argues that Obama’s plurality is apparent in the cast: black, white, hispanic; men and women and a child as well asoOne segment of the montage is signed for the deaf, appealing to another potentially marginalised group, whilst the catchphrase Yes. We. Can is also rendered in Spanish: Si se puede.

Text is also used in the video to emphasise key elements such as "Change", "Yes We Can" & "Hope". The latter of which dissolves into the word vote, the change colour for white to red, the only colout that is use in the video. Oliver argues that this is used to emphasise the key action for the American electorate to take away from the viewing.


Key points of the text:

• Obama lost the New Hampshire Primary election.
• Obama's speech yes we can was watched by thousands.
• This speech was taken up by Will.I.Am who remix it and created an online sensation.
• This video was watched by 17 million people around the world and made Obama the richest campaign to ever stand for office.
• Oliver argues that the clever use of camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene were used to manipulate and influence the American citizens to vote for Obama.

Key Quote 2-3:

"The memorable sound-bite, with its concise sense of positive affirmation (‘Yes’), its message of unity (‘We’) and the implied possibility of achieving change (‘Can’) is already acquiring a legendary status."

"The choice of black and white, for example, suggests a rejection of the glossy, sophisticated nature of most mainstream political broadcasts; conversely, the limited palette also cleverly implies this video, in contrast, is something rawer, with greater veracity: that this is the word on the street."


"Change, the central election message, also appears in this way, as does Hope. This latter is also repeated as the video finishes, the verbal noun Hope melting into the imperative verb Vote. That word slowly colour-shifts from white to red: the only colour in the entire sequence being used to emphasise the key action for the American electorate to take away from the viewing."

My Response:
I found this article very interesting as Oliver's interpretation of these events are similar to my own. I do believe the presentation within the media of a series of events can affect an audience in a passive or active manner. However I would argue that as Will.I.Am's video is a remix between his own creation of artists preforming and Obama's original speech therefor blurring the line between the real and the copied. This presents a hyperreal representation of Obama and his position as Obama's words were cut and reposition in the manner in which they were not spoken in the original video. This means that the message and meaning is changed along with the value and impact that it had on the audience. Also artists who are famous and in the eye of the public are presenting Obama's view, which are taken out of context and therefore do not played the original state in which they were delivered.

Therefore this leads the audience and the public into a false sense of representation and thus their decisions cannot be self decided, as other factors have introduced themselves to the audience to influence their decision. Therefore we are entering into a state in which control is taken away from the public and then are entering into a state which is similar to that of George Orwell's 1984.

Reconsidered question

After beginning to read articles, that develop my knowledge and understanding about my question and act as a bases to start my report, I have decided that my question; "To what extent is the world we live in a reflection of the world depicted by Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four?" is too broad for investigation and I need to refine my question so I have a direct focus on a niche area.

After a discussion with my tutor about my concerns, we where able, together, to reconsidered my area for investigation and rewrote the question to reflect this change but also to create a clear focus. My final question that I will be investigating into is: "To what extent are we living in a state of ‘hyperreality’, reflective of the totalitarian state depicted in George Orwell’s ‘1984’."

I feel that this revised question is more appropriate than my previous question as it is tailored to my interests of  George Orwell’s "1984" but also creates a niche area of focus and introduces me to a new term and area to investigate with the addition of "hyperreality". From here I now need to continue reading articles that have a direct focus on my new question and also start to consider my method for primary research.

Summary - There's a Riot Going On

Title of article: There's a Riot Going On
Author: David Buckingham
Publisher: EMC Publications (MediaMagazine)
Date published: December 2011

Theme:
Media Control / Influence  
Misreporting
A Change in media power

Summary of text:
David Buckingham argues in his article how the media uses words to construct meaning and interpretation. He said "To talk about 'riots' rather than for example, 'civil disturbances' or 'unrest' - immediately defines the meaning of the event in particular ways." Buckingham also commented on how images complemented the wording of news story but also how the same images was used for the first day after the story break and for many days after. "The iconic image of one black, hooded young man which appeared on at least five front pages."

Buckingham also draw on other key point about the "riot" such as the media focused the reports of young people and there act rather than the demographic of the riot. The people convicted for crime during the rioting were middle aged. Also, few weeks after the riot young people achieved record passes in their GCSE and A Level exam, Buckingham further support his view by draw light on how this record about of passes was not report by the media and how this leaves there read with a one sided view on young people. 

Furthermore, Buckingham go on to information the reader how many people have come to see the riots as an issues of race. A topic that was desired my the black press, however the mainstream media's coverage, over look this fact as if it were somehow too awkward to discuss. Therefore again leaving their audience with an incomplete understand of events. The media, as Buckingham put's it, "did not simply misrepresent what happened, and 'moral panics' are not just irrational responses. Media stereotypes are never simply inaccurate: they always contain a 'grain of truth'."

Key points of the text:

• The media did not simply misrepresent what happened but media stereotypes always contain a 'grain of truth'.
• The media speak to anxieties that many people already have.
• By putting a frame around a particular issue, the media draws it to our attention; but while the frame Includes some things, it always excludes others.  
• The media may or may not help us to understand what is going on.
• Most commentators are more than ready to rush to publication well before the facts have been established.
• On all sides of the media debate, there was a rush to instant judgment - or at least instant opinion.
• The coverage hardly heard anything from the people who were involved, or who were closest to what was happening.

Key Quote 2-3:

"Women In Journalism analysed 7,000+ stories involving teenage boys, published in on line, national and regional newspapers during 2008. 72% were negative- more than twenty times the number of positive stories (3.4%). Over 75% were about crime, drugs, or police: the great majority of these were negative (81.5%) while only a handful were positive (0.3%)."

"The age of 'Big Media'-of powerful, centralised corporations controlling media - is now finished: hierarchical, top-down communications have been replaced by a more egalitarian approach."

"The media did not simply misrepresent what happened, and 'moral panics' are not just irrational responses. Media stereotypes are never simply inaccurate: they always contain a 'grain of truth'."

My Response:

From this article I have take the understand that it is as much about what the media does report as what the media does not report that influence their audience understand and belief on a topic. I am beginning to understand that, thought the media can control the information that the audience receives, there is a limit to the extent that the media can do to manipulate the truth or to misreporting the event that the audience are socially acceptable of, and when the boundary is crossed society uprises.

There's a Riot Going On

First draft of notes on the David Buckingham article "There's a riot going on"

- A peaceful demonstration.

- Newspapers, TV screens and the Internet where flooded with reports and images of crowds rampaging.

Doublethink

My notes on the Wikipedia article "Doublethink"

- Act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts.

Origin and concepts 

- Know and not to know

- Complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies.

- To use logic against logic.

- Consciously to induce unconsciousness.

- To become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed.

- To understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.

- To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient.

- Objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality.

- Word one admits that one is tampering with reality.

- Protect its iron power without degrading its people with constant propaganda.

- Lead to the implosion of the State.

- Could be controlled and manipulated merely through the alteration of everyday thought and language.

- Doublethink is the method of directly controlling thought.

- This is demonstrated by O'Brien, during the time when Winston Smith is being tortured toward the end of the book.

- Especially true of fundamentally important words such as good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and justice and injustice.

- Means being able to falsify public records, and then believe in the new history that they themselves have just rewritten.

- The Ministry's name is itself an example of doublethink: the Ministry of Truth is really concerned with lies.

- Self-deception allows the Party to maintain huge goals and realistic expectations.

- If one is to rule, and to continue ruling, one must be able to dislocate the sense of reality.

- Doublethink would avoid a "killing the messenger" attitude that could disturb the Command structure.

- Key tool of self-discipline for the Party.

- Without the confusion and misinformation associated with primitive totalitarian regimes.

- To let himself become consciously a loyal party member while letting his hatred of the party remain an unconscious presence deep in his mind and let it surface again at the very moment of his execution so that "the bullet would enter a free mind" which the Thought Police would not have a chance to tamper with again.

- With relieving cognitive dissonance by ignoring the contradiction between two world views.

This article has again helped me to define what doublethink really means and how it could be used in reality to manipulate the truth.  For further investigate I would like to find another article that explains doublethink in the practice of the real world and also the phase that was mentioned in the article "the bullet would enter a free mind" and if Winston died he would have a free mind. 

Key areas of Identification for Further Investigation

To progress from two weeks ago, I have finished reading the novel and also have written up my initial findings and response to Nineteen Eighty-Four. As well as considering areas of interest for further investigation. (See Below) Mr Michie has checked over this and has also sent it out to other people who he knows might have some other elements or ideas for me to consider.

In our meeting this week me and Mr Michie have discuss George Orwell's theories on society and how they are ill-conceived. As his argument is not based on reality as people can not practice doublethink in the way he is arguing. Citizens are not passive to government or media influence, in fact they are active, they will "rise up" against the state.  An example of this is the uprising in egypt against the government, where as in Orwell's novel this is ignored to focus of the idea of control. 

We also identify the areas that I will focus my essay on and also carry out further investigation as well. These areas are:

- Doublethink

- "War in Peace"

- Alliances

For next week I am to read two wikipedia articles one about "Doublethink" and the other about "Newspeak". I am also going to read an article that is about the London Riot by David Buckingham and how the media constructed the publics opinion. This will help me to start to understand different ideas and other arguments for my essay. I can begin to use these as evidence either for or against the argument that world we live in if a reflection of the world depicted by Orwell. I also need to find the defintion of the word "Hyperreality", which will help me to investigate postmodernism.

During next weeks meeting I am to discuss my findings as from the wikipedia articles and how thay has help me to better understand some of the ideas the George Orwell presents in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Exploring the Text

Exploring the thematic aspects and wider implications of the text and my own response to the way the story is concluded.

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four poses many questions about society, government, ideologies; and the implications of a totalitarian state. Some of these question are answered within the book, however, others remain questionable. I consider the book to be one of the most important and illuminating novels of the 20th century, with Orwell changing the status quo. The novel challenges the themes of control, with the use of the "Telescreen", "Hate Week", "Big Brother", "New Speak"; and cults and societies such as "Youth League", "The Spies", "Junior Anit-Sex League", but more significantly the "Brotherhood". This  is an underground societies, which is created and falsified by "The Party" (the totalitarian government within 1984) to capture, interrogate and torture the so called members of the society. The implications are felt throughout the book, as the main character Winston Smith sees through the parties mantra to the lies that he is creating on behalf of the party and decides to rebel against them. This is unacceptable and the party has to quash the rebellious attitude by the means of torture and the rehabilitation. This is done in a four step process, the admission by Winston that he is insane, then the psychological manipulation or re-education to the parties way of thinking or ideology and then to "Room 101" for the destruction of all other love apart from the love of Big Brother and finally, death.

The theme of falsification of information and manipulation of people is another important aspect of 1984. The falsification of information is important not just because Winston Smith works in the department where the falsification takes place, but also because the past is changed to reflect the present and the future of "The Party". This is to the extent that even one of the party’s mantras is "Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." The practice of this can be seen in chapter 17, "If, for example, Eurasia or Eastasia is the enemy today, then that country must always have been the enemy. And if the facts say otherwise then the facts must be altered. Thus history is continuously rewritten. This day-to-day falsification of the past, carried out by the Ministry of Truth." This falsification of every day information has wider implications on the novel, as this contributes to the manipulation of the people. As the history of the country and the people is ever changing, there is no way to prove that the party has ever been wrong, therefore, that people have to take whatever the party said as truth and forget whatever they remember. The changing of information and forgetting the old is reinforced by the manipulation of the citizens of Oceania (the third state that the world is divided into) by the use of "Doublethink" and "Thoughtcrime". Thoughtcrime is simply any thought that is not in accordance with the principles of Ingsoc. (Ingsco is English Socialism.) The party believes that every crime starts with a thought therefore, if they control thought they control crime, hence thoughtcrime. However, what makes this possible to change the information at will, without the citizens being consciously aware that information was being changed, was the practice of every citizens undertaking doublethink. This is having a simultaneous belief in two contradictory ideas. Orwell describes it through Winston’s voice as "…to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink." The implications of this on the whole novel are that no one can truly understand or know anything at all, as any information has been falsified but then the citizens are manipulated into forgetting the falsification and forgetting the manipulation. This leaves the whole of society uneasy and unsure of what they know and what they don't know.

Both of these ideas and themes are brought together at the end of the novel to present a new theme of betrayal. "Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me." The last line of this, implying that no matter how hard or what promises a person makes, in some way everyone is betraying someone else. The way in which the novel is concluded is without doubt, symbolic of the fight, struggle and then the over riding power and control that the party has in it citizens. As the novel starts with Winston not knowing or understanding his place in society, then finding Julia and deciding to rebel against the party and finally finding his place in society by being tortured and then rehabilitated to love Big Brother resulting in his death. The ending and conclusion of the novel leaves me considering the implications of a totalitarian state, that want to control every movement and thought of it's citizens and whether we are at a moment in time where we could go either one way or the other. However, I think that George Orwell is proposing that it does not matter what we do now, as we are and have always been heading towards that state of life, with such devices that can trace, watch and know who, when, where, why, how and what you are doing of every minute of every day.

Ideas and concepts for further investigation:

- Orwell's inspiration
- Technology
- Language
- Control (in both mind and actions)
- "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"
- NewSpeak, Doublethink, Thoughtcrime
- Government
- English Socialism
- Society
- Fear mongering
- "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" (Emmanuel Goldstein "The Book")
- Proletariat
- "Written by a committee"