The rise of new media brings new media manipulation and new media exploitation. This truism should be front and center whenever politics, media and technology intersect.
The CNN-YouTube debate, which should have been called America's Best Home Political Videos, was a noteworthy turning point in the way journalists and candidates will interact -- but not for the reason many pundits have put forth.
Many writers gushed about the fact that questions for the candidates were selected from video submissions made by ordinary people. But there is nothing new about contests where the winner gets a cameo appearance on a TV show.
As is typical of user-generated content, despite all the hype about empowering citizens, the individual was utterly powerless, except to try to please and serve the interests of the gatekeeper and thereby obtain some attention. Remuneration, however, was not part of the package.
In fact, the debate essentially acknowledged that the submissions were mere props in a standard political event as it opened with a hip, ironic, media-aware question: "I'm wondering if since this is such a `revolutionary' debate, that if you as politicians can do something `revolutionary,' and that is to actually answer the questions that are posed to you tonight."
Later, one questioner asked: "I know you all are going to run around this question, dipping and dodging, so let's see how far you all can get."
CONTROVERSIAL
Whether any of the candidates could be pressed on their answer depended entirely on the debate's moderator.
But what was truly new, or at least very notable, was how cloaking the debate questions in an aura of citizen "journalism" could be used to present far more controversial content which would not otherwise be permissible under US journalistic rules.
That is, a moderator might be able to ask about gun control. But it would be a breach of decorum for a journalist to intone that some gun owners would say: "To all the candidates, tell me your position on gun control, as myself and other Americans really want to know if our babies are safe. This is my baby, purchased under the 1994 gun ban. Please tell me your views."
Yet the selection of a video of a gun owner asking that question was different. Under the unwritten rules of US journalism, it apparently counted as merely running the content of a third party -- or at least, that would be CNN's moral defense.
And as is common with data-mining, it's the central authority that ends up empowered. In a way, it's a very advanced version of the technique where if a journalist wants to put something in an article, he or she contacts a source who's certain to make that particular point.
Or, in today's environment, journalists go through blogs and forums in search of a post that could be quoted for the viewpoint.
But extending this idea to video presentations advances it to another level. Powerful visual images can be embedded in what are nominally questions.
VIDEO
In post-debate reaction, US Republicans seemed to have recognized this somewhere down in the deepest, lizard-brain core of their political body. It just might be a campaign-killing moment to justify continuing the Iraq war against a video backdrop of wounded anti-war soldiers, or to defend theocratic opposition to stem-cell research next to a display of someone suffering from an illness which might be cured. Pictures matter, and so the obvious Republican counter-move is to restrict such video-based debates only to favorable venues.
Thus, shifts in power will be met by incorporating such changes into the machinery of partisan propaganda. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with bringing different media sensibilities to political events. The talking head format is not sacred. But no matter how heavily marketers try to sell us on the idea of entertainment stardom -- even 15 seconds of clip fame -- as civic merit, we should never mistake a change in media style for any advance of citizens' power in politics.
The recent passing of Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known to many as “Big S,” due to influenza-induced pneumonia at just 48 years old is a devastating reminder that the flu is not just a seasonal nuisance — it is a serious and potentially fatal illness. Hsu, a beloved actress and cultural icon who shaped the memories of many growing up in Taiwan, should not have died from a preventable disease. Yet her death is part of a larger trend that Taiwan has ignored for too long — our collective underestimation of the flu and our low uptake of the
For Taipei, last year was a particularly dangerous period, with China stepping up coercive pressures on Taiwan amid signs of US President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which eventually led his Democratic Party to force him to abandon his re-election campaign. The political drift in the US bred uncertainty in Taiwan and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region about American strategic commitment and resolve. With America deeply involved in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the last thing Washington wanted was a Taiwan Strait contingency, which is why Biden invested in personal diplomacy with China’s dictator Xi Jinping (習近平). The return of
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long been a cornerstone of US foreign policy, advancing not only humanitarian aid but also the US’ strategic interests worldwide. The abrupt dismantling of USAID under US President Donald Trump ‘s administration represents a profound miscalculation with dire consequences for global influence, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. By withdrawing USAID’s presence, Washington is creating a vacuum that China is eager to fill, a shift that will directly weaken Taiwan’s international position while emboldening Beijing’s efforts to isolate Taipei. USAID has been a crucial player in countering China’s global expansion, particularly in regions where
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known affectionately as “Big S,” recently passed away from pneumonia caused by the flu. The Mandarin word for the flu — which translates to “epidemic cold” in English — is misleading. Although the flu tends to spread rapidly and shares similar symptoms with the common cold, its name easily leads people to underestimate its dangers and delay seeking medical treatment. The flu is an acute viral respiratory illness, and there are vaccines to prevent its spread and strengthen immunity. This being the case, the Mandarin word for “influenza” used in Taiwan should be renamed from the misleading