November 2004
The Gloves Come Off Online
GW Report Details a Web of Mean-Spirited Partisan Attacks
By Matt
Lindsay
GWs Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet released
Under the Radar and Over the Top: Independently-Produced Political
Videos in the 2004 Presidential Election, a study of the independently
produced political videos currently being circulated on the Internet.
Along with the report, the institute hosted a panel of political and Web
video experts on Oct. 20 to discuss partisanship, media coverage and new
forms of political persuasion.
The institutes report found political Web videos tend to be far
more mean-spirited and partisan than the two most popular videos of the
genre, JibJabs This Land is Your Land and Good
to Be in DC, which have been shown on national television broadcasts
and viewed by millions of people.
The study found that these amateur videos are spread by E-mail and posted
on political blogs (Web logs), giving them an underground currency that
is larger than generally recognized. Because this activity occurs out
of view of the political press, this new and growing phenomenon has largely
escaped the medias attention.
These extremely partisan videos, which are traded among influential
political activists who forward them to their large networks of friends
and colleagues, are inciting an already polarized electorate, said
Carol C. Darr, director of the institute and co-author of the report.
This is a troubling trend, and one that will quickly trickle down
to state and local races.
The report, which forecasts the future of Web video as a political communication
tool, found that:
The polarizing effect of these videos is amplified by the fact
that online political activists who find them and forward them tend to
be more ideologically extreme than average citizens;
Anonymous political videos are just over the horizon;
These political videos can be produced by anyone with moderate
technical skills and $1,000 worth of equipment and animation software;
and
Technology already makes it possible to convincingly distort the
words and images of the candidates. Although the institute found only
one such video in this election cycle, the specter of individuals or groups
circulating deliberately false and misleading videos on the Internet is
a real one.
The report, based on up-to-date research and lessons learned from the
2004 campaign, also discusses the institutes online videologue of
the political Web videos produced by the presidential campaigns, national
party committees, so-called 527 organizations, other groups and individuals
during this election season. The report can be accessed on the institutes
Web site at www.ipdi.org, and a collection of the videos can be viewed
at http://www.ipdi.org/videolibrary.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
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