Michelle Obama speaking at the DNC
By Sean Creamer
From the first page of the blog, it showed supporters of general democratic ideals weathering out the rain. Cardboard signs were protected by plastic bags and umbrellas as these die-hards showed off their zeal.
Of course your crazies with crosses were present, but for the most part, those who appeared, were there to show their support or disdain for the democratic party.
The photographer, Doug Mills, took an approach where the snapped photos were taken from peculiar angles. One that stuck with me was where a reporter’s legs can be seen through the bow-legged stance that the cameraman has taken. It reminded me of all the work that goes into making events such as this readily available for all who have a connection to some sort of media outlet.
Another shot focusing upon legs is one where a woman is having her snapshot taken in a photo booth.
All-in-all, the lens blog of the democratic convention’s first day seemed to revolve around various players getting ready and it ended with a powerful picture of Michelle Obama, standing tall after her speech as the crowd gives her a standing ovation.
The first photo of the second day of the convention is one that is particularly striking. It shows a young black woman with a sign that displays “yes we can, again.” and next to her is a young man in an Abe Lincoln suit whose sign proclaims “Republicans for Obama.” To see such a cast of characters come together around Obama is astounding. One may usually think that democrats and republicans are beasts who are constantly at war, but one can see that bi-partisan politics does not mean that republicans fully subscribe to Romney and vise versa.
Another photo that struck me was one of technicians cleaning up the stage in preparation for Bill Clinton’s speech. I found their attire to be quite amusing. They themselves looked like speech givers from the angle of the photo taken, but closer inspection reveals that they are cleaning the teleprompter, not reading from it.
Another photo that reached out to me was one of a Michelle Obama Barbie doll. It made me wonder what kind of games one would play with that kind of a doll. Perhaps a mock-up white house with a plastic Will Smith figurine (yes, they exist!!) as Barack.
After a few of these candid shots of people from the convention, the photographer then gets serious, posting a slew of photos from various speeches and of course, Slick Willy’s speech.
The third and final day of the convention blog begins with Obama accepting his nomination as the Democratic party’s representative for the 2012 election. Like Michelle’s photo, this one is taken from behind and above him, which gives a scope to just how many delegates were there supporting the O-man. After that photo, the others reverted back to the “people on the street” mentality.
A man was shown carrying a bundle of commemorative tee-shirts that laud Obama’s nomination. I wonder what would happen to those shirts if another democrat had gotten the nomination out of left field.
Someone would have lost a lot of money and I bet that they would be shipped off to some third world nation where the message of shirt is lost, but the warmth and comfort of clothing is not.
Multimedia Round-Up:
I have never covered an election. I followed the McCain Obama race back in 2008, but I never followed it via the internet. It was interesting to see the various articles and interactive features from the NYTimes coverage of the DNC. While tuning into a televised program may give a viewer their own perspective on what was said, the Multimedia Roundup done by the NYTimes delves much deeper than your ordinary analysis.
One tool created was the “At the National Conventions, the Words they Used.” This device measured what words were most prevalent in every 25,000 words spoken. In simple terms, it means that they tracked issues and recorded how many times either times the republicans or democrats stated it. Jobs was almost an even subject, with democrats speaking about it eight more times than republicans. Another popular phrase was “Obama,” which had been stated over 175 times by democrats and 66 times by republicans. Then of course it is funny to see that words like “faith,” “fail,” “spending,” and several other terms with negative connotations rested on the republican side.
My personal favorite piece was the analysis of Obama’s speech-he references to the fact that the republicans listed all the problems of this nation (as seen in the interactive word search).The journalists who covered the speech did a word-for-word transcription of Obama’s speech and then analyzed it and gave comments on the side while a video would play an actual recording from the day.
Overall, I felt that the coverage of each convention was done very well, so long as one is savvy with the internet. When I had asked my grandfather to take a look at the work of the NYTimes from my laptop, he felt that the clutter was too much for him to even look at. So while we may have ultimate coverage, perhaps it may be better suited for some to just tune in.
