Re: <nettime> the war of the web

[brian carroll <human {AT} architexturez.com>]

>>  bc writes:

>>  web advertising as propaganda:
>>  an ad on Yahoo News! for Fox
>>  Television, which i think had
>>  a recent ad campaign about
>>  being `objective' in their
>>  reporting and letting the
>>  viewer decide what to think:
>>
>>  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>>
>>  Nato vs Russia
>>  Is involvement in Chechnya necessary?
>>  Get full coverage on FOXNEWS.com

>Decklin Foster <fosterd {AT} hartwick.edu> writes:

>I must be stupid. Where's the propaganda?

 no, it's not you who is stupid. i may
 have over-coded the text/image, presuming
 that Nato involvement in Chechnya would
 equal war with Russia. Nato versus Russia,
 not Nato & Russia working together to end
 the regional conflict. the advertisement
 thus swayed me in the direction of war,
 not peace. in my opinion the propaganda
 comes in making the question of war with
 Russia a simple yes/no answer, bringing
 the 2oth-century Cold War into the future.

 after your message i realized that the
 ad may have instead meant intervention of
 some kind, like post-Kosovo. but i didn't
 read it that way. you may be in the right.

 i tried relocating the ad to see if it
 went to an opinion poll where Internet
 users could vote their conscience, but
 i could not find it again. who knows what
 kind of pseudo-democratic politic lay
 in the wings of foxnews' website via
 some javascript and a loaded question:
 a political pyramid scheme of information
 and opinions.

 [fyi: Yahoo!News just opened a new section
 called POLLs which may prove interesting
 as an astrological bellwether of sorts].

 i thought Yahoo!News might have targeted
 their banner advertisments, so i went to
 a story on Chechnya, and instead of the
 Fox News ad, an advert for a US cable TV
 comedy show comes up above the details
 of the Chechyan war:

 Comedy Central's Indecision 2000
 Talk politics with The Daily Show's Jon Stewart.
 Yahoo! Chat   Live 1/31   8pm ET/5pm PT

 here's a quote from that archived text::

"The acting president (Putin) has built much of his popularity on the
Chechnya campaign. But a poll broadcast on state television on Sunday
showed him slumping seven points to 48 percent -- below the 50 percent
needed to win outright in the election's first round."

 this juxtaposition of satire, war, death,
 diplomacy, & opinion polls by traditional
 media conglomerates looks a lot like TV on
 the web. actually, it _is_ TV on the web.

 i offered the Nato vs Russia advertisement
 as an artifact of a USA-media perspective
 on a regional/world event that might not
 otherwise be seen on local television sets
 around the world. i find it novel that one
 can peer into different cultures on the web
 to see their skeletons beneath their clothes,
 like you can see me beneath these words.

 my attempt to share my viewpoint that the
 banner advertisement is simply `propaganda
 for war on the web' still may be mistaken,
 it may not be as universal as i had thought.

 but, given other list topics, such as the
 AOL-Time Warner marriage, this advertising
 artifact shows how info, such as the banner
 ad, can be used to portray (inter-national)
 power/war on the web; where, in an increasingly
 privatized Internet, media companies become
 even moreso guardians and arms of governance
 (assuming the media is not run by the State).

 negating all of this, i would probably end
 up agreeing with you. and yes, i may be mistaken.
 but that's where and when things get to be fun.

>This is really making me wonder about the list moderators. *ahem*

 i disagree. why? because i think it is important
 to see things that one doesn't always agree with.
 that's where discussion/discourse comes in, the
 lifeblood of an email discussion list. there are
 many dimensions of the Internet which go under-
 or un-reported on nettime that are relevant to
 network criticism. one of these, i think, is the
 role of banner ads in shaping political opinions.
 another, if i remember correctly, has to do with
 getting more perspectives from .ru, so i offer
 the advertisement in that context.

 * the Network is the Nation, the Internet the International *

 bc


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