Let's Go Photoshopping!!!

In his writing Photoshop for Democracy, Henry Jenkins would not "totally disagree" to the fact that some people would argue that circulating images is a poor way for more traditional forms of political activism.

Jenkins says that he would not "totally" disagree because in those situations, "people are simply hitting the send key and thoughtlessly forwarding the images to everyone they know." What Jenkins suggests is that crystallizing one's political perspectives into a "photomontage that is intended for broader circulation is no less an act of citizenship that writing a letter to the editor of local newspaper that may or may not actually print it."

In today's American youth society, the combination of words and images are much easier than giving someone a brochure about something. It makes life a lot easier for someone who wants to spread their campaign or something that they want to put out for the public to see how important it is to them. In Jenkins writing, he explains that the Internet is much faster and a easier way to spark people in America about the political campaign being presented at the time and spread it to anybody. Back before the Internet was invented, people used to only used the newspaper for political campaigns and ideas. In order for someone to have people read one's campaign, one must put their campaign in a newspaper article. In order for people to spread the news about a political campaign, one must either make copies of that newspaper or just spread the word to other. Nowadays, politics put their campaign on Internet because many youth cultures in America watch the news or political campaigns on Internet instead of the newspaper. Although the newspaper seems as if it will be diminished in about 20, or so, years, the younger generation prefers news on Internet because it is easier and they can spread the news quicker to family or friends.

In this video, Sarah Palin was running for Vice President and John McCain as president. Despite the hilarious spoof, the video is saying that people should vote for McCain so that Palin can become vice president. The video was originally Estelle featuring Kanye West called American Boy, but the spoof was putting Sarah Palin featuring John McCain called Vice President. This influences the youth by understanding what Sarah and McCain want for their campaign back in 2008. In the video, John McCain says that everybody, "gets their information on the Daily Show." McCain is, perhaps, preferring to that people should listen to more of the actual political channels and that the Daily Show has incorrect information about him. This video, perhaps, was to promote both of their campaigns by having people look at it on YouTube and spread it to everybody they know by sharing it on facebook, other YouTube accounts, or perhaps, to others emails.

Activists, fans, and parodists are using the popular graphic software called Photoshop to "appropriate and manipulate images to make a political statement." Jenkins prefers that people should use Photoshop, in an appropriate manner like this video, to be able to reach a larger public politically.