We're Gonna Run This Campaign on Positive Constructive Ideas"

“We’re gonna run this campaign on positive constructive ideas”

These words were uttered in Senator George Allen’s speech he gave on August 11^th, 2006 at a conference in Virginia. Below I’ve posted two videos: one that was taken from a handheld camera of a student at the conference who had been travelling with the Senator and the second is an interview aired on CNN questioning the senators behaviour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90z0PMnKwI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfP3vj8Gl8&feature=related

It was quite surprising to hear what followed in Allen’s speech after he started with “we’re gonna run this campaign on positive constructive ideas” because numerous times throughout the video Senator Allen refers to a young boy of Indian decent as a “Macaca” or “Macaque.” The dictionary definition of the word is “any monkey of the genus Macaca chiefly of Asia” and is often used as a racial slur against people of Asian and African decent. He in the video also say’s “Welcome to America and the real Virginia “ which is also an extremely questionable choice of words as in the past Allen has been criticized for being racist and making racist comments. He claims to have meant nothing by either statement and that he made up the word Macaca and had never heard it before. But that is very hard to believe given his track record as in the interview with Allen after the conference made headlines it is mentioned that Allen “has a confederate flag in his living room, noose in his law office and a picture of confederate troops in his governor’s office.”

This video recorded on a hand held camera was very quickly put on you tube and because you tube is such a popular form of citizen media and self expression the video was given national exposure and led to a great deal of political discussion about senator Allen’s character. I like you tube as a form of citizen media because it is a many to many form of communication in which everyone can post on it and where people are allowed to actually comment and share there opinions and discuss the media they are seeing versus one to many communication like television and mainstream broadcasting. There are a wide range of comments on both video’s some people having very strong opinions like this man “He said it himself, "Welcome to the real Virginia." I'm from Louisiana and I know racism and this state is dripping with racism. Black Virginians are crazy for staying in that state.” Not all were this angry some were questionable of Allen’s intentions and thought that maybe it was being blown out of proportion and was unintentional and made up. However if you view the second video it is quite clear by the above quote from the interview with CNN that this was no accident.

Newspapers and reporters are no longer the primary source of information about news. There are various other outlets for people to post up to date information and videos about important events. I think you tube is a very important form of citizen media for society at this point in time. A big television studio or news crew did not record this video; it was recorded and distributed by a University student. We have so much power as individuals now and the ability to be active not passive consumers of media. We can actually affect politics and political discussion and it’s becoming much more common for people to record political events and everyday events with their cell phones, digital cameras and personal camcorders. Due to the widespread use of the Internet and all the easy to use technology available to us it is no longer necessary to have a lot of high tech knowledge and products in order to get yourself heard and to get your video’s and thoughts noticed.