Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Madonna, McCain, and Madness

The master of the media has done it again...Madonna has created a political buzz using shock value in her Sticky and Sweet tour. Images of Hitler, Mugabe, and McCain are associated together in one of the performances...Is there a flip side? Can you believe Ghandi, Lennon, and Gore are associated with Obama. Is it really shocking?

Not really, it's Madonna: Diva of the Media, well known Moore supporter, and marketing Genius. 

Of coarse, this has everyone in a frenzy. I cannot speak for her intentions, but perhaps her imagery is mocking the dramatic portrayal of themes that the media already spins off of. Maybe not. Never-the-less, it gets people talking. And yes, that is what Madonna does best. Is this a bad thing? Maybe it is an attempt to get people more involved in the political process. Who knows? 

Bottom line, I don't see how her dramatic display is much different than the sensationalized headlines that runs through the modern mass media everyday. No matter what you may think about how she gets her political message out, in the media, I am glad that we live in a country that allows us the freedom of political speech.

1 comment:

Linda said...

We may have the freedom to speak and to use blogs... but do we have the freedom to be heard by the media? We can talk about Darfur in a blog, but who is listening and who is writing about it in our national press? We can talk about how Bush told the media not to show coffins coming from Iraq -- but who gave him to the right to declae that and why in the world did the media listen to him? No one had the courage to defy his request. That is not freedom to express yourself, in my opinion