Truth is a Virus and Electronic Disturbance

Danielle Marie Herrera
Prof. Maira
ASA 4 A04
6 June 2017

In a humorous, yet intriguing fashion, Andrew Boyd's "Truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and the Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)" effectively discusses the impact of memes on politics. Boyd centers on a fake political platform known as the Billionaires for Bush (or Gore), meant to satirize their campaign and highlight the superficial complaints and self-interests of big corporations. Memes appear on social media all the time, and I liked how Boyd defined memes as "media viruses" which could mutate based on edits by anyone with Internet access throughout the world. Memes are not that different from video parodies, such as those on Saturday Night Live, and satirical poster parodies that may have existed for centuries. SNL in particular and its impressions of different politicians has appeared to have a correlation with how U.S. citizens voted during elections.

A key theme in Ricardo Dominguez's "Electronic Disturbance: An Interview" is that it is important to preserve the practice of street protest while also acknowledging the impact of direct activism through the Internet. The rise of technology has added a digital divide between those who have access to the Internet and those who do not, specifically, in the political or news spheres. While the Internet is a powerful tool for providing information instantaneously, it puts those who cannot afford Internet access in a state of helpless oblivion. To lack access to the web is to lack access to knowledge, or at least mass-produced news. I think it is important to have both grassroots and online political campaigns because they are both needed to guarantee outreach to a large range of individuals.