Understand how the internet is used in expressing political views
Learn how the Internet is used to express political views.
Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz
Transcript
NARRATOR: Observers agree election campaigning has become a practice devoid of substance. Party TV commercials resemble ads for insurance or package holidays. They present facile and vague promises of a better future. And between commercials the same people repeat the same sentences over and over on political talk shows. This type of electoral campaigning reveals how most politicians apparently view their voters - passive, apathetic, comfortable and probably not too bright. But now ever more people are learning how to put down the remote control and to use keyboards and cameras to challenge the platitudes of politicians. Television was a window to an artificial world from which politicians held their sermons. In contrast, the internet provides a door that allows users to step in and join the action, and ever more voters are doing just that.
FRANK MAI: "I really look up to Michael Moore. In one of his early books he said that people should do what he does: grab a camera, film what moves you and present it to the public. And now, with YouTube, that is a lot easier to do than it was before. And that's exactly what I do."
NARRATOR: But the web is more than just an alternative to TV, it provides a boundless repository of material.
MAI: "I use the Internet as a media archive because I can find everything politicians have said and news reports from years past, from that material I can parse out issues that I find interesting, and often funny, at that moment."
NARRATOR: You don't need to be a film editing program expert to take up a political position on the Internet. The simplest way to express your opinion is by using a button on your profile page.
MARKUS BERGER-DE-LEÓN: "If nearly 60,000 people say they like Angela Merkel then that shows that people can indeed identify with individuals and parties. And, most importantly, that preference is made public. I don't think that you would find 60,000 people, even among the four or five hundred thousand registered Christian Democrats, who would wear an Angela Merkel T-shirt, with a picture of her and the words 'I like it' above and below."
NARRATOR: Clicking on like is, of course, very easy to do. That's why some party faithful and supporters go a step further and blog or go on twitter to industriously tweet their electoral platforms. However, those who venture into the truly political realms of the internet quickly realize that the issues discussed there are largely ignored by established political parties.
FRANK MAI: "I really look up to Michael Moore. In one of his early books he said that people should do what he does: grab a camera, film what moves you and present it to the public. And now, with YouTube, that is a lot easier to do than it was before. And that's exactly what I do."
NARRATOR: But the web is more than just an alternative to TV, it provides a boundless repository of material.
MAI: "I use the Internet as a media archive because I can find everything politicians have said and news reports from years past, from that material I can parse out issues that I find interesting, and often funny, at that moment."
NARRATOR: You don't need to be a film editing program expert to take up a political position on the Internet. The simplest way to express your opinion is by using a button on your profile page.
MARKUS BERGER-DE-LEÓN: "If nearly 60,000 people say they like Angela Merkel then that shows that people can indeed identify with individuals and parties. And, most importantly, that preference is made public. I don't think that you would find 60,000 people, even among the four or five hundred thousand registered Christian Democrats, who would wear an Angela Merkel T-shirt, with a picture of her and the words 'I like it' above and below."
NARRATOR: Clicking on like is, of course, very easy to do. That's why some party faithful and supporters go a step further and blog or go on twitter to industriously tweet their electoral platforms. However, those who venture into the truly political realms of the internet quickly realize that the issues discussed there are largely ignored by established political parties.