Going Viral

The Internet Age is, from the perspective of human interaction and communication, fascinating. Everything (except for child abuse) is permitted and readily accessible. Smears and unfounded attacks may or may not shape the political conversation, but it’s going to be much harder to get away with things. The sunlight is the medium itself, and it is capable of cutting through those with the means and the time to use the law for their advantage (The reason I would support a campaign finance reform of unlimited donations but immediate disclosure on the Internet and very heavy fines for not doing so). A large part of politics is the ongoing conversation about issues, encompassing a broad scope of political communication – rhetoric, jargon, historical appeals, substance, distraction, attacks, opposition research. And some impressive investigative work is being done by people previously shut out of the media flow. This detailed report, for example, provides evidence of Obama’s campaign team directly creating and funding attacks on Sarah Palin. Such attacks aren’t particularly noteworthy or new in American political history (think about Jefferson and Adams), but the masking of them as viral and amateur, and the quick exposure of them as something else, are.