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New Media, Old Politics?

Moderator: David Thorburn
Henry Jenkins Garret LoPorto Joseph Trippi: October 14, 2004; Running Time: 1:43:05

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

In the common judgment of this panel, the World Wide Web will strongly shape the future of politics in this country, for good or ill. Henry Jenkins describes how media savvy candidates, from Pat Buchanan to Jesse Ventura, have grasped the strength of the internet. They speak directly to disenfranchised citizens surfing the Web, painting themselves as plain-speaking, opinionated outsiders. Jenkins sees the 2004 campaign as “caught in the crossfire between the internet and TV.” He worries that the phenomenon of instant Web commentary on televised events—such as the response to Howard Dean’s “I have a scream” speech—gets the public involved in a game of negative campaigning, and ultimately decreases voter turnout.

Garret LoPorto believes that the internet may enable a new kind of politics to emerge—by motivating individuals with shared belief systems. The customary approach is to mass market --“indoctrinate,” says LoPorto-- via broadcast media, employing demographics. LoPorto embraces the new “viral marketing,” which emphasizes “psychographics.” The internet encourages individuals to reveal themselves and express what they care about, says LoPorto. The trick is to find and transmit on the Web “ideas that enhance people’s identities,” and then to build networks around common concerns. The Web organizations MoveOn and True Majority quickly built large memberships using these methods.

Joe Trippi is the panel’s optimist. He acknowledges that internet-based groups can bludgeon political opponents, but believes the internet will ultimately prove a balm for Americans’ increasing, TV-generated isolation. Internet collaboration can inspire people to social and political activism. Driven by thousands of Web-based meet-up groups and contributions, “the Dean campaign was the bottom rising up in power against a political system that was failing the country.”

Lecture Details

Location: Bartos Theater

“Who would have thought when Nixon gave the Checkers speech to 3 black and white TV networks, that we’d be sitting here with 500 channels, plasma TV, satellite, TIVOs, whatever. The Net is only in the 1950s. The Dean campaign was Nixon’s Checkers speech. We were that first flickering instant of the changes the Net will cause and the meshing of the Net and media. The Net won’t subsume and overthrow, the way TV didn’t overthrow radio. TV will still have impact. TV changed radio, and so will Internet and technology change TV.”

Joe Trippi

About the Speakers

Moderator: David Thorburn

MIT Professor of Literature
MacVicar Faculty Fellow Director, MIT Communications Forum

David Thorburn has published widely on literary and cultural subjects and is currently completing a cultural history of American television, called Story Machine. He received his A.B. degree from Princeton, his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford and taught at Yale for 10 years before joining MIT in 1976. He has edited collections of essays on romanticism, and on John Updike, as well as a widely used anthology of fiction, Initiation. He is a former Director of the Film and Media Studies Program and of the Cultural Studies Project.

Henry Jenkins

Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities
Director of Comparative Media Studies Program

Henry Jenkins' books include Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. His previous books include "What Made Pistachio Nuts": Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic; Classical Hollywood Comedy; and Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. Jenkins has published articles on a diverse range of topics relating to film, television and popular culture. His most recent essays include work on Star Trek, WWF Wrestling, Nintendo Games, and Dr. Seuss.

Jenkins has a Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa.