Viewfinder: Video Creators Get Into Politics
Ways in which videos can be used to make a political point.The winners of a political advertising contest for novice video producers were announced in January on the Web site www.bushin30seconds.org. The non-profit group, MoveOn.org, professes to "bring ordinary people back into politics," created the contest late last year. The Web site states: "With a system that today revolves around big money and big media, most citizens are left out. When it becomes clear that our 'representatives' don't represent the public, the foundations of democracy are in peril."
This is the kind of thing that the Founding Fathers of our nation had in mind when they created the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. While today we have no laws "prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech", the mass media industry creates a profound bias in favor of powerful institutions. The MoveOn.org Web site goes on to say, "Year after year, a few dozen Washington consultants make the great majority of political ads. They look the same, they sound the same--even the actors seem familiar. Perhaps as a result, voters tune out, even when there are critically important messages to conv…
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