Opinion: The viral power of Barack Obama’s images

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Pictures have been used for political purposes since the 1800s and the advent of political cartoons. And now, as our blogging colleague David Sarno notes in a fascinating post over at Web Scout, we have the power of videos, namely viral videos that get handed around and played over and over, even as you read this.

According to Sarno, Barack Obama’s folks have figured out how to get theirs more noticed and discussed than other candidates. As he points out, Obama has the most Facebook fans, he’s No. 1 on Twitterer and this week has seven of the most discussed videos on YouTube. Although how helpful it is to have your ‘spiritual counselor’ ranting over and over and over again about ‘God Damn America’ is questionable.

And Sarno makes some instructive and cautionary points for consumers about how these images can be adroitly mashed and manipulated.

-- Andrew Malcolm