Our friends the Obamas / though he is African American, Barack Obama is a man well-versed in the Asian culture, since he was raised in Hawaï and Indonesia. He embodies the switching of the centre from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. From the East Coast to the West Coast. He imposes his own discourse, his coolness inherited from the surfers with whom he grew up, and from quantum philosophy, which impregnates him. He learnt from the surfers how to manage his stress, and he went as far as recognignizing himself the right to be wrong: “I screwed up”.
In line with the 60's counterculture, he has opened the second decade to a new discourse, he privileges the new interactive media, and he has irreversibly paved the way for non-white minorities who will no longer be excluded from having responsibilities, or from appearing in advertising campaigns. By exposing his family to the public eye, he set the tone for a new family order. Just as cool and responsible as his husband, the new planetary lifestyle icon, Michelle Obama, dresses herself with a 300$ budget, to the very much regret of the American press and fashion designers. At the White House, Michelle grows her organic garden with her now 12 and 15 year-old daughters and has dinner in town in restaurants where you can eat for 30$. The Obamas have made us reconnect with the myth of genuine people leading real people.
America still is the one and only power that still can create myths and associate them to new media. After having invented the radio, the cinema and television, Obama's America is now the master of the Internet over which it has total control. America has also invented formats and messages which it broadcasts on new media it uses to impose its will. Without any stress or visible violence, the bow of the American ship has changed its course from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Barack Obama, as a symbol of a changing world, embodies a new order for a world which is now focusing on communication, new technologies and Asia. Thanks to the Internet, the new leadership is cooler: transparent, virtuous, omnipresent.
It never neglects humour, which is the only way to deal with serious matters, especially with a young audience. For young people are the future.
In 2009, the presidential candidate Obama integrated in his PR strategy the digital and interactive media: Twitter (76.000 followers), Facebook (with more than 6.200.000 members, his group is the biggest one), and above all his campaign and governance websites. Because of the relatively small number of his cyber supporters then, in a country of nearly 300 million people, Obama has mostly talked about new media.. on the printed press ;-). He has been using new media and new communication tools in order to convince the whole world.
His online video messages have an average length of 1 minute 30. He signs official documents in the webcam's eye. Obama's BlackBerry, his Roman Emperor's sword, the symbol of his belonging to the digital world was reviewed by the security services to allow him to keep in touch with the people through social networks.
After having warned the young Americans about the dangers of Facebook in 2011, Obama, on the brink of presidential elections,
later sought the support of his new friend Mark Zuckerberg, who suited up for the occasion ;-).
The online press revolution: in 2009, we have switched from printed magazines to online press. The highlighting of the role played by the Internet in Obama's campaign illustrates the crisis that the printed press is going through. The press future lies in the online versions of magazines, and in digital media combining free and paid features.
This technological revolution gave rise to an individual lfreedom revolution which now prevails over the press freedom. The time when journalists could unilaterally impose their view is now over. Bloggers have invented a new way of writing which makes room for comments, and thus to their readers opinions. The printed press used to be the voice of the people, the Internet is the people.
After experiencing the realm of exploitation by politicians and brands who rapidly measured the impact of these interactive media, blogs are now integrated by the press groups, and are to be subject to legal regulation soon. Politicians, artists, and brands will now directly adress the people online, through editorials, videos, and advertisements. The Internet have made the Arab spring possible by allowing the individuals to gather and challenge the official media. Now the newly liberated people no longer thank America, but Facebook ;-)
The web is a world like any other one, with its websites dedicated to sharing of ideas and goods, its social networks which are comparable to bars, countries, or continents depending on the number of their members. These website also have thugs, pirates and wars made by independent or governmental hackers through viral attacks or the taking over of a website. War and death can also be found online. The military and the politicians have found new virtual battlefields where their strategies of attack, defense, monitoring, and prevention are implemented. And also their psychological manipulations.
Like any industry, the army communicates online. It uses weapons which correspond to this new medium. By using targeted killings and drones, the Western military have invented “fair war”, where villains are killed without generating too much collateral damages among civilians and its own troops. These targeted actions, broadcast on TV and online, avoid mass pacifist demonstrations that would negatively affect the chances of a president to be reelected. In a world where political correctness prevails, where trade is fair and wars are clean, it is crucial to be in line with the public opinion who no longer trusts important military operations following the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. An opinion which promptly gets outraged when its formal
requirements are not met.
In his book Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, Daniel Klaidman tells how Barack Obama chooses himself America's enemies who shall die on a trombinoscope, called “baseball cards” by the presidential advisers. The Americans love drones because they remind them the video games they used to play to when they were children, and because their sanitized prowesses are broadcast on TV and online in the form of short black and white videos. Without endangering their boys' lives.
The commando raid movie that allowed the capure and the killing of Osama Bin Laden has largely been screened on television, and of course online, in order to reassure the American people about the recovered inviolability of their country's territory and to confirm to potential governmental and non governmental attackers that no one falls out of the powerful America's reach.
However, there's no video of Barack Obama watching live Bin Laden's death in the situation room, only a photo of the President surrounded by his vice-president Joe Biden, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, high-ranked military officers, and members from the presidential staff. They are showing no visible rejoicing sign in order not to undermine their future relations with the Islamic and Arab world, only a cold determination for men and a certain fright expressed by Hillary Clinton.
A staging worthy of the 18th century paintings of battlefields, without victims or spilling of blood.
Just as sanitized as war, you will find the Stuxnet virus, developed in 2009 by the USA and Israël, that aimed at slowing down the Iranian nuclear program allowing thus diplomats to get ahead the military.
President Obama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, once presented as fainthearted by his detractors then showed to the Americans, on the brink of the 2012 campaign, that even in weaponry matters, he is a supporter of technology and that he is not slow to strike a fatal blow if necessary. He also showed them that he's protecting them without sending them to the battlefront.
Viral communication can also be used to prepare the public opinion to a military intervention aiming at protecting the America's sources of supply located abroad.
This was probably the case in March 2012 when a video titled “Kony 2012” reached nearly 100 million views in less than fifteen days. How could the buzz work so miraculously quickly? This unusually long video according to the web standards, was posted online by the NGO Invisible Children, which had supported the first election of Obama. The video aimed at bringing to light and help capture Joseph Kony, an Ugandan tyrant who disappeared in 2006. Jason Russel, cofounder of Invisible Children movie director and actor with his young son, of the Manichean video
dedicated to the glory of story-telling destined to a right-thinking audience, was later arrested and charged with public indecency a few weeks later in San Diego's streets.
At the same time, we will learn that Uganda had just received 6 Russian fighter jets in order to protect its oil fields discovered in 2006 at the country's border with South Sudan, which is also rich in oil and had just gained its independence.
Probably because it was too obvious, the “Kony 2012” which called for the sending of unarmed American troops to teach the Ugandan people about the benefits of a clean war thanks to new technologies got stuck and we never heard again about Mr Kony.
Before helping an old lady who fell in the street, a Baby will first take a picture, then post it to Facebook and caption it with “looool”.
In a tougher style, criminals, young and older, also learnt how to show themselves on the Internet. A Batman fan, James Holmes, got in Aurora's cinema yelling “I'm the Joker” and started shooting people, killing 12 and injuring 58. He appeared in Court with his hair dyed in bright orange, just like his hero and his source of inspiration.
Chances are that deadly games where death will be staged are going to be the next successful online and televised entertainment. Just like in the Ancient Rome games, the public's
