“Photoshop for Democracy”

Unlike traditional radio, television, and print media, the relationship between new media (i.e., internet networks) and democracy in the article “Photoshop for Democracy” demonstrates a 21^st century media that provide unrestricted media channels to ordinary people like you and me to market and distribute anything imaginable in the form of voice video and data.  In this case, a home made video was developed using, possibly, Microsoft Photoshop and distributed across the internet with a purpose of rallying democratic support for the 2004 elections against the Republican Party as represented by President George W. Bush.  The use of the popular Apprentice Show video footage edited together with video newscast of President Bush was imaginatively clever in design and well purposed in terms of connecting the “Your Fired” Apprentice Television Show catch phrase to the overall negative political performance of George W. Bush.  It was also witty in attracting 300,000 potential democratic voters to the fold of an Internet based website.  In contrast, these voting numbers could never have been established by using old media channels, for example, television and radio because the access is never at the hands of ordinary people.  In general, the internet has turned out to be a potent mechanism for makeshift media and political persuasion among the masses of mixed voters, which perfectly symbolizes the basic tenets and freedoms that bear the roots of democracy.