Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 09:33 PM Mar 2015

2 MILLION Facebook Views in a Week! How Elizabeth Warren Turns Boilerplate Viral (TIME)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=423362941159538&fref=nf

3/4/15 at 9:22 pm -Shared with Public
2,034,785 Views

Here's the vid at youtube~


How Elizabeth Warren Turns Boilerplate Viral
3/4/15

Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren posted a video on Facebook of a recent speech in which she discussed the decline of the middle class and criticized Republicans in Congress...

In one week, the video has gone viral, grabbing more than 2 million views and picking up more than 50,000 shares on Facebook. And it’s not unusual for the Massachusetts Democrat, either. Three of her most-watched speeches on YouTube have more than a million views, while another seven have more than 100,000 views.

So what’s her secret? TIME sat down with some rhetoric professors to take a closer look at her most recent viral hit and figure out why the former Harvard professor who once had trouble just doing a softball interview with The Daily Show has become such a power hitter online.

They argued that the secret sauce in Warren’s videos is a palpable but carefully modulated sense of anger, the very quality that billionaire investor Warren Buffett had criticized her for earlier this week.

The recent video’s headline doesn’t entice—“Watch and share my opening statement from yesterday’s first Middle Class Prosperity Project forum”—or boast an impressive backdrop. ...The first minute and a half of the speech is relatively dull, filled with facts highlighting the decline of the middle class.

Then she slows down.

“In the 32 years from 1980 to 2012, 90% of Americans got zero income growth,” says Warren. “Nothing. All of the income growth in that 32-year period went to those at the top.”

It’s at this point in the speech where she first begins to repeat her points for emphasis—a trick used by “orators since time immemorial,” says Jeffrey Walker, chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin—and let her emotion bubble up.

...Lynn Itagaki, an English professor at Ohio State University, says that Warren is a “great translator” with a “clean-spoken manner” who can help sway the mass public on complicated material, especially through a vehicle—Facebook—that has a built-in audience ready for one of Warren’s favorite topics, tackling student debt.

With the kind of a precision of a doctor or surgeon, she names it, identifies the political choices that caused it historically and then she proposes a solution,” says Itagaki of middle class economic issues. “She provides a diagnosis of the problem and then provides you a prescription.”...

http://time.com/3732251/elizabeth-warren-viral-videos/
12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Autumn

(46,082 posts)
1. Along with “She provides a diagnosis of the problem and then provides you a prescription.”...
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 09:38 PM
Mar 2015

her message resonates with people. They like that fact that at last, a politician is looking out for them and speaking to their needs

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
2. Bingo! She's just so good. In content & sincere intent.
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 09:50 PM
Mar 2015

And delivery.

...I think I may double my pledge for her if she decides to run:

http://www.demstarter.com/

Phlem

(6,323 posts)
3. She's a Bulldog and she's our Bulldog.
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 10:26 PM
Mar 2015

She know's full well a healthy nation has a healthy middle class.

I love every fricken inch of her.

 

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)
4. “She provides a diagnosis of the problem and then provides you a prescription.”
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 10:32 PM
Mar 2015

Which is nearly unheard of by a politician.

Usually, they just point out the problem and then try to claim something their party wants (but is totally unrelated) will fix it.

Take "jobs":

For Republicans it's "tax cuts".

For Dems it's "education".

whereisjustice

(2,941 posts)
6. Yet some in the Democratic Party deny the disparity that has flourished like Republicans
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 11:10 PM
Mar 2015

deny global warming.

The data is there. The experts agree.

I guess you can say the conservatives in both parties are in denial.

Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are Wall Street's establishment couple.


slumcamper

(1,714 posts)
7. Liz FRAMES the issues and the points of debate--this is why the right
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 11:45 PM
Mar 2015

is very reluctant to even acknowledge her. Notice that hardly a word is spoken, her name seldom uttered??? That is instructive.

Warren is "messaging," and this is a challenge to the turf that has been controlled by the right. Finally, someone is offering a counterpoint to conservative madness--and it happens to be resonating.

Run, Liz, RUN!?!?!?!?!

So....is NOW the time? Or should we set sights on 2020 or 2024?


zentrum

(9,866 posts)
8. The views are great BUT
Wed Mar 4, 2015, 11:47 PM
Mar 2015

….many of the comments are hammering her and are very RW.

Everyone, get on over there and post some comments!

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
10. The Time article must have been like a dog whistle.
Thu Mar 5, 2015, 06:21 AM
Mar 2015

Thanks for encouraging people to help out there! I'm not on FB or I would.

zentrum

(9,866 posts)
11. Not on FB
Fri Mar 6, 2015, 12:35 AM
Mar 2015

I know. FB is drag but I joined it just for the ability to do this kind of thing.
I can view things and "like" things——and I don't bother with my own page and also stay totally private.
Something to consider.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»Elizabeth Warren»2 MILLION Facebook Views ...