The reactions are varied (typing in the name of the video in Google will bring up the blogs), from socialists celebrating the video, to neo-cons essentially hailing it as the problem with global politics today. Most of them, however, miss the point...this is a joke. You only have to watch the first 10 seconds of the video to realize that these guys are not serious.
So my question is this: should political journalism be this reactionary?
It seems that if this video can elicit this reaction (or overreaction, if you will), how would these bloggers handle real news? Are they simply looking for evidence to support their own agendas? If so, how do two guys singing to Katy Perry do so?
It seems that journalism is moving more towards narrowcasting (especially in the age of independent bloggers), but does that mean that we need to hyper-analyze every video that comes on YouTube, in case it might be the signal of the end of the world? Or should we take a deep breath and try not to take things so seriously? Where do journalists fit in this picture? Should we look at every news source we can, even comedy? I think so. Should we have this visceral a reaction to comedy? Maybe. But we also need to remember the source.
The journalism surrounding this video just seems very irresponsible, as well as trivial. Blog about something that really matters, please. I don't think that the silly antics of two guys in a dorm room are going to drastically influence global politics. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the Pokemon shirt is all part of the Communist plan to brainwash the youth of the world. Who knows.
Emily, I think that you radically underestimate this video's potential influence. Personally, I found it to be the most stimulating piece of internet journalism disseminated since the difficulties attending Eastern European relationships were brought to light by the viral dance of the portly man to the "Numa Numa" song.
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