Proximity Politics. One kind of proximity politics refers to new-found adjacency resulting from globalization which forces new dilemmas before citizens. Another kind of proximity politics refers to the coat-tail riding of aspiring politicians who try to trade on the fame, glory or popularity of others. Still another kind of proximity politics are practiced in attack ads, in which politicans seek to attach their oppenents' names to negatives without explicit accusations, relying instead upon a series of words or short phrases without the grammatical glue which might permit proper parsing or analysis. And the final kind of proximity politics—probably the most positive—are those practiced by WatchBlog, which calls paid to the inward-looking, self-reinforcing echo chambers of one-view political forums. Instead, the two main American parties and their myriad third-party siblings are posting to the same arena. It's the answer to the question, "How can people's minds be changed if they only seek out what they already agree with?" If the opposite camp is in the text column next door, maybe you can't help but to take a dose of what's turning out to be strong commentary largely free of carbon-copy rhetoric, cardboard cut-outs, and cookie-cutter opinions.
posted by Mo Nickels on Jun 16, 2003 - 9 comments

Covergent irony, perhaps, maybe intentional commentary. So the New York Times writes an article about the relationship between globalization and commercial messages, particularly the insertion of globalization itself into the commercials and advertisements. The headline: "Globalization on Film: Message in a Coca-Cola Can." Guess what was in the advertisement to the right of the story. Right: a Diet Coke advert. The ad rotates on re-load, so here's a screenshot, 36k.
posted by Mo Nickels on Mar 23, 2001 - 2 comments