MyDavidCameron.com : Political Nanostory or Burgeoning Internet Meme?

       No matter the location, highly charged political environments seem to bring out the most in people's productiveness when it comes to spoofing, expressing or promoting their political views through created art and content. Being from the US, I only have to look back to the 2008 elections for examples of this ranging from the formally produced (The Great Schlep, Will.I.Am's "Yes We Can" & Funny or Die's "Paris Hilton Sketch") to the informal (Obamagirl, "Obama vs. Mccain Dance off" or the Anti-Clinton "Vote Different" Ad from the Democratic Primary). With a UK general election on the horizon, there have been more than enough UK examples of users generating content to support their political ideologies (an old but good one is this send up of Gordon Brown), but one currently dominating the UK political content landscape is mydavidcameron.com.

David Cameron and the ill fated poster campaign in Early January (source)

      Like most good internet content movements, MyDavidCameron.com sprang from a public misstep by a highly visible figure/organization which left the opportunity for some modification and humiliation. Specifically, the Conservative party's new outdoor advertising blitz, featuring a seemingly retouched David Cameron and large amounts of modifiable space, created an opportunity ready made for the internet.Within days of the unveiling of the poster, internet users (as well as those offline), had taken to modifying the poster's message in a range of ways, varying from mocking the airbrushing to changing the entire content.

One of my personal favorites....Source:“No digital effects” by Ian Yates.

        Modifications of the original poster, like the one shown above, began to be aggregated and housed on MyDavidCameron.com, set up on the 7th of January, which has become the central hub for the posters with over 105,000 visits (and 89,000+ uniques according to their site) since. While modified Cameron posters have been distributed and generated (this image generator claims 117,000+ images so far) independently of the site, it is becoming more difficult to extricate the image based meme from the associated website. The dominance of one outlet for a meme's content differentiates the David Cameron posters from other recent memes such as Kanye West and Balloon Boy (which seemed to have a variety of small blogs working in conjunction with social networks to distribute the meme's content) and begs the question, "What exactly is this, a meme or a political story?"

      Kanye Jokes were rife after his Taylor Swift interruption, but there wasn't a readily available source for the content, at least at its peak. (source)

Who Cares if it's a Meme or Political Nanostory..It's Funny!

        Discerning whether the David Cameron posters are more meme or political story may seem pointless, but I think the classification helps to predict what the future looks like for the concept. Internet meme's may rarely achieve long term general visibility, but they do have staying power within communities that adopt them. Looking at Fark.com's adoption of Rick Romero (which later became reciprocal) or 4chan's creation of duckrolling (and subsequently Rick rolling), its easy to see how online communities can foster in jokes which live on or sometimes explode into the mainstream.  The difference between these memes and the David Cameron movement is that the sites which sustained the concepts existed independent of the meme, not the other way around. If the myDavidcameron.com poster's are thought of as meme-like, then while the popularity of the base meme may wane, it can be expected to have possible new permutations or smaller community adoption which extends the concept's life cycle.

"This just in, Internet Memes can spread quickly amongst people. More with me, Rick Romero at 11"

        Alternatively, if Mydavidcameron.com is thought of a political story, then it can be regarded as one of a series of political stories which will dominate the psyche of the political scene temporarily before being over taken by something new in the run up to the general election. Especially coming from an American political sensibility, I tend to view the modern political landscape as a battle  fought on news cycles and zeitgeist. While I don't think the UK political scene is to the point shown in the 2008 US presidential elections, there does seem to be a noticeable progression from one story of the moment to the next (if anyone has seen "duck houses", "Nick Griffin on Question Time" or any of an array of other previously prominent stories, could you point them back in the direction of the national consciousness). 

          If we truly attempt to classify what the MyDavidCameron.com phenomenon is, it seems to exist as a hybrid, a political story about a meme or "political meme". Growth of the meme itself is partially independent of myDavidCameron.com, but it won't achieve nearly as much prominence without it. Alternatively, new content generated by the meme is necessary for a continued prominence of the website. MyDavidCameron.com has already taken steps to proliferate its reach into other content housing networks, with over 1200 fans on a Facebook group and 700+ followers on Twitter, as well as extend media coverage, but how long will this go for?

Where does it go from here?

        In trying to figure out where this issue will go, I'm reminded of a point made in a book I just finished, "And Then There's This" by Bill Wasik. In one of the chapters, Wasik relates an experiment he conducted on creating politically viral content through the Huffington post's Contagious Festival.In creating and distributing his own viral content, Wasik clarified three divisions in those who would consume it. As replicated below, his chart used political affiliation (Liberal to Conservative) and contrasted it with the tone of the content (more or less anarchic, i.e. traditional vs. radical).

(Original Source) 

       Wasik's chart, approximated above, stressed the idea that his project, "The Right Wing NY Times" interested both Conservative and Liberal viewers for different reasons, facilitating growth on multiple ideological channels. Subsequently, we can assume that the base consumers of the MyDavidCameron.com related content are center left, as no current aspect of the site taps into a stringent, non-anarchic Conservative ideology. Considering this, I've attempted to modify the chart to place different types of content creators on the same scale, shown below.

Modified from (Original Source)

      As shown, MyDavidCameron.com can be approximated as within the overlap area between Liberal and Neutral. This is because of the tone of the site, the answers put forth in its FAQ and the anarchic tone of its content, relative to more traditional political sites. The sites user generated content and non-affiliation with the organized parties of the left means that it can operate in a more disruptive tone than where affiliated blogs/microblogs or traditional party websites exist. This tone means that if we were to think about how the different audiences consume the site, shown in another modified chart below, possible avenues of expansion come to light.

Modified from (Original Source)      

       The Red arrow above shows what I approximate to be the initial audience of MyDavidCameron.com. 2 segments exist within this audience: Strong Liberal oriented consumers and contributors  who interact for its oppositional content and confirmation of held beliefs and Weak liberal to Neutral oriented consumers and contributors who interact for the contrarian humor and anarchic tone (including possible "lulz").

       If we consider these two segments and their growth possibilities, it seems that without an innovation in content or an escalation in tone, the weak liberal to neutral consumers will stop interacting first.The segment seems oriented more towards the meme aspect of the concept than the political story or site itself. However, if users continue to deliver interesting and more sophisticated user creations, while reconciling with the standards put in place for submissions, this segment can stay interested.

      Those with strong Liberal orientations seem to be the stalwart for growth and continuation of the meme and the site, due to the strong reaffirmation of their held beliefs. That being said however, even the most ideologically oriented of visitors requires a level of continuing entertainment from interaction, otherwise moving on to the next political story.

      Since both of the currently interacting segments require continuing novelty and entertainment, perhaps the best chance for continued prominence comes from an unlikely source, the Strong Conservative opposition. Wasik's "Right Wing NY Times" viral clearly illustrated that getting the widest spectrum of users interacting with content is the best way to incubate viral growth. While that example was able to possibly embrace both sides of the spectrum through a duality of content, MyDavidCameron.com faces a tougher task. Due to its firmly Liberal to Neutral tone, the only way to draw in Conservative interaction is through encouraging an adversarial response.

       Those associated with the original poster campaign or the Conservative movement would probably like nothing more than for this entire political meme to stagnate and die off. The less prominent the meme becomes, the less embarrassment those associated with it have to suffer and the less damage the existing poster campaign has to take. However, drawing this segment into creating either an oppositional response (I would recommend MyGordonBrown.com but it seems that it's referring to MyDavidCameron.com) or an affirmational response (WeLoveDavidCameron.com, DavidCameronandKittens.com or the previously suggested OurDavidCameron.com) fosters the best opportunity for renewed content creation and conversation. Nothing like competition forces innovation and growth and the presence of such content energizes the existing interacting segments and draws in new traffic from unlikely sources.

Conclusions....

      Overall, the MyDavidCameron.com phenomenon, whatever its classified as, shows the power of inspiring motivated internet users. Where in previous elections (both here and in the US), such user generated content would have been the purview of an email list or an online community, distribution is now geared towards the masses. A political climate of consumption exists in such a manner that small memes can become big memes and big memes can become news stories. These may fade quickly or they may bubble under the surface, re-emerging at opportune times, but it shows that the age of personal creation and distribution is firmly entrenched in the political landscape. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend the next 2 years attempting to modify the lyrics of the llama llama song for Obama's reelection (apparently someone already had that idea last time).