University of Illinois at Chicago University Library
Abstract
When the viral video “Vote Different” broke into the mainstream media in March 2007, the political video mashup became a notable media phenomenon. User-generated mashups threatened to cut through the US news clutter that typically shapes election discourse. In this paper, political video mashups are examined as allegories of citizen empowerment during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Political video mashups can act as tools of political advocacy, forms of political protest, and modes of political commentary. Finally, though they are already being co-opted by mainstream political campaigns, the paper addresses the potential of mashups to re-interpret political messages in ways that may encourage the active re-framing of political issues among 21st century citizens
