Obama: Yes We Can
This blog entry is part of a Fall 2008 blogging exchange between American University in Cairo and Stanford University's Online Activism class. To read all the entries, follow this thread; be sure read the earliest entries first.
Hey fellow commrades! This is Karen Nesbitt, Emily Clopp, Christina O’Neal from the States. We are writing from our PWR 2: The Rhetoric of Online Activism… to you! Our main argument focuses around the rhetorical aspects of the official Barak Obama website, www.barakobama.com. In making assesments, biases are fairly common, so we want to awknowledge that we take a more liberal/Democratic stance on issues and are sophomores at Stanford University. We found the general loyout of the website to be straightforward and uniform, but in with a unique asthetic style. The aspects that we found most effective on his site were the initial image of his family shown when entering the site, the cleanliness and flow of the information, and the directs links to aid in being a proactive supporter.
We especially found the family portrait shown before entering the site to be appealing because it made us all feel that he is one of us: he is a family man, for the people, of the people, and by the people. For us, the idea of family and community centers around being unified, and we feel that this image along with the cohesive American colors and general set up of the website brings together his values and mission towards a progressive change for America. Being the first potential African American president, he does face discrimination, but makes it quite clear he isn’t discriminating against anybody in his campaign strategy – pulling his audience from extreme diversity. On his site, there is a tab soley devoted to “People”, which describes his involvement with various individuals of multicultural backgrounds. Next to each group, is his campaign symbol, which he has personalized to each group, which shows that he is willing and wants to adapt and incorporate all audiences for a better America. We found it very interesting as well that the site had a option of viewing it in Spanish, recognizing the large population of Hispanics that lives in America.
Achieving another sense of unified support from diverse backgrounds, the site includes on its main page a video which we found to be very powerful. The video was movement based, showing images of different places and people, but all working towards the same goal. Not only in his video is he emphasizing his goal of bringing politics back to the people, he is also placing the power of change in our hands. We believe he is making a strong rhetorical message by only being heard in the video, never seen, and even so, only speaking towards the end of the clip. Most of the video incorporates the viewpoints of various supporters and by centering it around community involvment, is making the upcoming election about the people. By showing the energy of the people dedicated to his cause, he is emphasizing that this election is “larger than life”, which enstills an excitement that viewers can feel that they are making a difference.
Obama is no doubt campaining with a big slogan: a call for change and a rise of hope. His slogan “Yes We Can” and his campaign strategies are to doubt risky, as are some of his rhetorical techniques of creating a hype around the upcoming election, but with every risk or challenge in life, you either go big, or go home. So Cairo, do you think he can?