Nice weather for (devil) ducks

Election day weather is, indeed, something the media likes to talk about, as Amanda has discovered. It's a nice post, although I think it's the weather map for the wrong day.

Exit polls and stuff

We kind of need to geek out a little on exit polls and on Election Night coverage. Some/most of you will have an advantage over me, because I probably won't watch any. In fact, I've almost never watched any. The Goodwin Hotel in 2000, late into the night, is my only memory, and it is a VERY foggy one. But look at the fact that McCain was a question in 2000.

Now, I somehow know that Harry will click on EVERY link in this FAQ, but I encourage the rest of you to do so as well.

This story will give you a little context about the collapse of the VNS, although I don't really understand why we should feel better about what replaced it.

You might wanna watch the interview here with Rather and Silver. I don't really know how you watch Rather's network, but somebody oughta check it out on election night.

Why does a meme spread?

Mike asked for access to this. From the point of view of memetics, it's really interesting and extremely viral. Why? Because it's funny, portable, customizable (which gives the meme-spreader the sense that he is adding something), compact, direct (although it uses misdrection).
It allows the spreader to assume the illusion of a greater level of technical, information-sharing expertise than he really has. (Anybody can do this, but it looks complicated.) It concerns something that people care about. It makes a point. It uses familiar tropes. (I'm convinced that this is one of the keys to the viability and motility of a meme -- that it introduces new content using recognizable themes and tropes.) For a meme to spread, it must invite and permit the meme-spreader to look smart or clued-in, right? That's one reason you spread something is because it makes you look sharp. Another reason is that you think people need to know it.

Welcome to the useless cesspool

Some Old Media / New Media musings.

This was a good show on that topic.

ObamaTV

So, was it worth it?
Here's someone who thinks so.
Here's some ratings info.

This is NOT an invitation to rest on your laurels

...but tonight's class made me proud. Watching you guys pick apart the pluses and minuses of Obama's media buy, watching you push off from each other's perceptions made me proud. I could drop dead and you could teach other for the rest of the semester. Which is the whole idea.

Now get back to work.

Mike this week

Mike is blogging about endorsements and negative ads.

This guy claims endorsements matter. Maybe.

A different picture here.

A very interesting marriage

of big media and small.

This is not an ad

But Rich is right. It must be watched.

The Wild Card effect

Now that ANYBODY can make an ad that might go viral, there's a risk that an actual campaign ad can be stomped into ground by an outsider's response.



To a certain degree, that may have happened to McCain's "celebrity" ad, when this came out:

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Courtney had better be ready

I can't think of a better fulcrum for starting our discusssion than her argument that campaign advertising really is about selling a product to consumers.
Fortunately, Guest Professor Wolfberg is a dead ringer for Don Draper.

Compare and contrast

If Harry hadn't already won the duck, he'd probably win it this week. (Particularly because blog posts such as this may my in-class job easy.)

Here he contrasts two 2008 tax ads.

Here he looks at two uses of the Oval Office as mise en scene.
(Both pretty unsuccessful, IMHO.)

Here he contrasts two approaches to a controversial Veep pick.

Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline,

I don't know you, but I got kind of excited about the very notion of a computer that doesn't take so long to turn on.

We're not as patient as we were back when this Kennedy ad (h/t Caroline) ran.

That's why a modern two-minute web ad has to stimulate us and cater to our ADD.

Who who who who?

The "who is he?" trope is not new.

Hotmessadvt.

Courtney has picked some ads to look at.

More resources

I thought this report was very germane to our 10/27 discussion.
It clued me in to the existence of these folks, who don't provide a lot of info for free, of course, but clicking on their "ïn the news" pdfs can be quite enlightening.

Pro Bono

There has been a major conflation of celebrity culture and politics. "The View" is regularly used as kind of a reality check. And now Bono is going to be a New York Times columnist.

Not that you care about this, but ...

Here's a level-headed explanation of the whole "likely voter" thing I was talking about last Monday.

Nate agrees with me

Remember how, last night, I said that each poll has a kind of personality?

The other key site

I'm not even sure Professor Wolfberg knows about this.