Communications Major

Digital artists, have at it!

More politicians are finding self-flattering ways around press conferences and on-the-record interviews. How? By making their own vanity videos.

It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign -- that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China. It originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep's parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.

Google said it would not comply with a White House request to reconsider the anti-Islam video that has set off violent protests, saying it did not violate its terms of service regarding hate speech.

A live stream on YouTube provided by the nonprofit news organization The Texas Tribune went viral and gave the Texas state senator Wendy Davis a national platform in her quest to halt a state bill that would severely restrict abortion. 

The most hateful tweeters in the United States tend to live in the eastern half of the country, according to a new map that pinpoints hate speech directed at gays and minority groups from Twitter across country.

First Lady Michelle Obama kept up with her husband stride for stride on Monday, smiling brightly as they proceeded through a second inauguration ceremony chock full of pageantry. But in the "eye roll heard 'round the world", Michelle cast what appeared to be a disparging shade at her husband's nemesis (and her lunch partner), Speaker of the House John Boehner. A Tumblr blogger posted it - which helped the look go viral. 

To read some people on the Internet, you’d think the election would be decided by who had the most followers and Tweeted the most about his or her favored candidate. The truth of the matter is that, even if you are the world’s most prolific political Twit with gobs of followers… those people (other than the spam bots) self-selected to follow you, meaning you’re either preaching to the converted or the trolls.

In real life, most people don’t use Twitter — and, when they do, it’s not to get involved in politics. Some statistics on that, courtesy of the Pew Internet and American Life Project....

Have you ever been sitting at home, watching the latest episode of Generic Sitcom, and during the commercial break you see all these political ads making wild claims and strong assertions? Well, get your iPhone out...