Barack Obama accepts Democratic nomination

We could post almost everyday about the Presidential campaign with respect to the themes of the class, but yesterday's events were especially important. Of course, Barack Obama became the first African-American to earn the nomination of a major party. What is so interesting for this course, however, are the ways in which media continues to be centrally important in this election. The DNC event last night with ~70,000 at Invesco Field in Denver was a huge television event, and this NYTimes photo essay provides a good sense of the scale of the event, as does the video itself. The speech reached an estimated 38 million TV viewers, the largest ever audience for a political convention. As with many other television moments, the broadcasters noted that viewers were watching "history in the making." Obama also made direct reference to Dr. King's "Dream" speech, tying the event in to one of the most famous recorded speeches in history. And Obama's candidacy is also historic, in part, because he and his family have become so visible in the media. It's difficult to say what it all means yet, but it's clear that television (and internet video) continue to be important to how we understand what counts as historically important.