not necessary for the campaign. In all of his materials, Ganz emphasizes the idea of the “two minute Volunteers should practice telling their story in two minutes or less. The story story.” crafting sessions actually began with an extended discussion and sharing of personal experiences. One participant in the August 2007 Camp Obama training in Atlanta recounts how the seven volunteers in his group shared meaningful and rich stories: Ben, who grew up on an Alabama farm as one of fifteen children, lost his father at age ten. Lavell lost his mother to breast cancer as a child growing up in a poor neighborhood of Queens, and Tryshanda came from a failing school system and was told that black girls the field of astrophysics where couldn’t enter she wanted to study (Exley 2007). But having shared these intensely personal stories, the volunteers were asked to rewrite their stories to emphasize how they made the decision to work for the election of Obama. One of these stories was that of volunteer Susan Christopher, from the Camp Obama training session held in Burbank, California in July 2007. The story was uploaded to youtube where it has over 5,000 views. In two minutes and twenty seconds, Christopher relates how she felt when she hesitantly attended a training session and she heard Ganz talking about how Obama was a return of the hope embodied by the Mississippi marches and Cesar Chavez. She describes her reaction in emotive terms: heart softening again, I felt “I felt my myself able to give a little bit more of me to this Christopher talk about her process.” doesn’t intellectual reaction to policies but her visceral and bodily reaction to hearing the Obama’s public narrative of Obama as framed by Ganz. There is an evangelical sense of rebirth that drives these kinds of narratives, which is not surprising given the religious underpinnings of Ganz’s approach. Despite references to Mississippi marches and civil rights during the training sessions, the use of emotion in the Obama campaign was vastly different to its use in earlier campaigns. In
not necessary for the campaign. In all of his materials, Ganz emphasizes the idea of the “two minute story.” Volunteers should practice telling their story in two minutes or less. The story crafting sessions actually began with an extended discussion and sharing of personal experiences. One participant in the August 2007 Camp Obama training in Atlanta recounts how the seven volunteers in his group shared meaningful and rich stories: Ben, who grew up on an Alabama farm as one of fifteen children, lost his father at age ten. Lavell lost his mother to breast cancer as a child growing up in a poor neighborhood of Queens, and Tryshanda came from a failing school system and was told that black girls couldn’t enter the field of astrophysics where she wanted to study (Exley 2007). But having shared these intensely personal stories, the volunteers were asked to rewrite their stories to emphasize how they made the decision to work for the election of Obama. One of these stories was that of volunteer Susan Christopher, from the Camp Obama training session held in Burbank, California in July 2007. The story was uploaded to youtube where it has over 5,000 views. In two minutes and twenty seconds, Christopher relates how she felt when she hesitantly attended a training session and she heard Ganz talking about how Obama was a return of the hope embodied by the Mississippi marches and Cesar Chavez. She describes her reaction in emotive terms: “I felt my heart softening again, I felt myself able to give a little bit more of me to this process.” Christopher doesn’t talk about her intellectual reaction to Obama’s policies but her visceral and bodily reaction to hearing the public narrative of Obama as framed by Ganz. There is an evangelical sense of rebirth that drives these kinds of narratives, which is not surprising given the religious underpinnings of Ganz’s approach. Despite references to Mississippi marches and civil rights during the training sessions, the use of emotion in the Obama campaign was vastly different to its use in earlier campaigns. In
Politics-and-Protest-paper.docx