Assignment
Electronic Media and Culture, November 6

Political Satire: Create the Next President's Home Page

Construct a home page for the winner of the election on Tuesday that contains your opinion of the newly elected candidate. Should we view the next President of the United States of American as an inspiring leader full of lofty ideologies and great hope for the future? Or, are we enjoying an early Thanksgiving by choosing a turkey? Does the new President bring new promise, new excitement, new possibilities for a better tomorrow, or is this the end of the world as we know it? What will it be like to endure the next four years under the leadership of either Al Gore or George W?

Whatever you think, express your perspective as an interactive web page that contains found graphics (and other media if you wish) appropriated from the plethora of websites hyping the campaign. Most appropriate would be to download images from election night as well as the following days after the election when there are photos of the beaming winner and his glowing wife, hysterical supporters, cheering crowds, etc. Use the candidate's websites to get ideas for satirizing a political home page and to make your point. This project is due next Monday so just create one page with links to other sites! Keep it simple.

Some sites you might use to appropriate images for your project are:

Al Gore's Official Home Page
Official George Bush Site
Official Ralph Nader Site
The New York Times On-line
CNN On-line

Please share any interesting sites you find with the rest of the class. Send URLs by email to the class list.

Feel free to take images appropriated from these sites, manipulating them in Photoshop, for the purpose of expressing your view of the next President. Your site can liberally link to any site on the Web that helps illustrate your point. Visit existing political sites for ideas.