Videopolitics: My Family and Other Animals

12 март 2012, Автор: Julia Rone
Публикувана в 2011 Media Monitoring Report

This article looks at the key events in Bulgarian politics in 2011 as they are represented on the video sites Vbox7 and YouTube. The most-viewed videos of 2011 contain Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s anecdotal statements in which he refers to sheep, fathers-in-law, pigs, potatoes, and so on, the protests against high fuel prices, the rally of the nationalist party Ataka in front of the Banya Bashi mosque in Sofia, the national protests after the tragedy in the village of Katunitsa (see below), and the presidential election in October. Most of the videos on politics posted on the two websites were downloaded from traditional media. These are also the most-viewed videos. The majority contain full news and current affairs programmes, parts of satirical shows, or stories from newscasts. Fewer videos are user-generated. They tend to be parodies, often remixing footage from the media. Those that contain original footage shot by members of the public are amateur videos of protests. In 2011 YouTube increasingly became the leading platform, serving as the source of many videos reposted on Vbox7. Thus, the two video sites do not simply refer to the media, they have become interlinked in a system of cross-references.

Flock Looking for a Shepherd

One of the most-viewed videos of 2011 featuring politicians is a Nova Television report broadcast in June and posted on YouTube in which Prime Minister Boyko Borisov advises university students to stop complaining about unemployment and to become shepherds instead of wanting to be IT specialists (Kalenderov 2011). The prime minister’s words met with a storm of disapproval, where many of the viewer comments advised the prime minister himself to go and graze sheep, to open higher education establishments, and so on. An earlier amateur video from March 2011, called ‘Time to Protest’ (‘Vreme za protest’), begins with footage of TV journalist Martin Karbovski saying, ‘We’re sheep. We don’t protest. We only complain.’ The video then shows a set of photos of politicians against the background of an angry song, and ends with an appeal for joining a protest against the fuel price rise (Lipci 2011). Sheep as a symbol of apathy and resignation became an image of the passive Bulgarian people. It is no coincidence that during the presidential elections one of the most unlikely presidential candidates, punk/ska singer Svetlyo Vitkov, posted on YouTube a song whose video plays on the image of sheep and of the president as a shepherd who must herd and guide the sheep in the right direction (Svetliopresident 2011). The song of Svetlyo, who was running for president himself, is very critical of all politicians. In a certain sense, we may say that the shepherd-candidate has correctly grasped the spirit of the flock.

Family Stories

Prime Minister Borisov’s statements are not confined to sheep – they build a comprehensive agricultural-government mythology populated by pigs, relatives who grow their own potatoes, and so on. Speaking in a popular TV interview in March (Bludnicata 2011а), posted on the internet, Borisov says that his family has never been afraid of a potato price rise because they grow their own potatoes. Here Borisov’s rhetoric reveals a curious political view – namely, that the rise in prices is not a systemic problem and should not affect us if we know how to grow potatoes. The true Bulgarian knows how to grow potatoes. In the same vein, Borisov says in a December interview that he is a true man because he has slaughtered a pig. According to Borisov, the people who see this as animal cruelty are upstarts who hide behind words. ‘I’m a realistic person,’ the prime minister goes on to say, ‘I live in Bulgaria and my friends are Bulgarian and I know how people in Bulgaria live’ (Ssstto 2011). The prime minister’s stories about his family are consistent with his image as a man of the people, a person like all others, who has grown up in the countryside and knows how his electorate lives. The constant appeal to biographical elements conveys a very political message. The prime minister is a politician but, above all, he is a human being. The normative division between public and private in his figure is purely conventional, it is an impossible chimera. At the same time, asked about the allegedly unaccounted-for properties owned by Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov’s father-in-law, Borisov says that being interested in them is not within his remit as prime minister. This is all about Tsvetanov’s family (Lyubodelev 2011). Thus, personal life is invoked on the political scene for the purpose of isolating those who are not convenient. This ambivalence can be seen in the prime minister’s answer to a journalist who asked him on election night whether his political party, GERB, had engaged in vote-buying. Borisov replies, ‘I swear I haven’t paid a single lev for a vote’ (DarkmasterO 2011). Now this is a brilliant answer, but it does not answer the question. It is precisely on the internet that we find numerous amateur videos about vote-buying such as, for example, ‘Buying Elections in Bulgaria’ (Ivaylo781 2011). The obliteration of the boundary between private and public can be seen also in the scandal connected with the nationalist party Ataka, which is falling apart because of leader Volen Siderov’s extramarital affair with young Ataka functionary Denitsa Gadzheva, a former girlfriend of Siderov’s stepson from the first marriage of his wife Kapka Siderova, co-founder of Ataka. Thus, a family drama turned into a political war, aggravated by the party’s poor performance in last year’s elections (Fractal76 2011).

The Bulgarian Lions

By far the most popular Bulgarian political videos of 2011 on Vbox7 and YouTube are about the Ataka rally that led to bloody clashes in front of the Banya Bashi mosque in Sofia in May, and the national protests against the absence of law and order in Bulgaria after the tragedy in the village of Katunitsa in September, where a young ethnic Bulgarian man was run over and killed by an associate of Kiril Rashkov, a notorious Roma bigwig often defined as a ‘local feudal lord’. The trends in 2011 correspond fully to the dominant moods on the video sites, the key development being that the hatred of minorities, previously hidden online, erupted and moved offline – in the form of violent acts and peaceful public protests.

Ataka’s rally during Friday prayer ended with a fire, riots, and violent clashes. The above-mentioned Denitsa Gadzheva was injured on the chin by a thrown stone, which became a sensation on the internet. Patriarchal honour was attacked precisely by the act of desecrating the beauty of the loyal woman.

Most of the viewer comments on the video sites unanimously supported the nationalistic actions at the rally with comments such as ‘kill the Turks’ until comments were eventually shut down by the moderators.

In September videos about the riots in Katunitsa went viral on the internet. The videos trace the running over and killing of the young Anguel by an associate of wealthy Roma Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, the burning down of the latter’s properties by the furious crowd that flocked to Katunitsa from all over Bulgaria, and the subsequent protests in the big cities against the absence of law and order in the country (Query=Катуница 2011). The videos include Anguel’s funeral procession (GeorgiTashev 2011) and the burning down of Tsar Kiro’s house (Wikimaper 2011). The tragedy of Anguel’s parents and the wealth of Tsar Kiro were viewed by online users as something that transcends the boundaries of the private sphere and that is a symptom of the overall weakness of the state. That is also why taking the law into one’s own hands was seen as a natural reaction. The burning down of Rashkov’s properties was followed by nationwide protests. Among the most active participants in those protests were hard-core football fans who rallied around the national cause. Chants of ‘Freedom or death!’ alternated with the national anthem and the popular football chant ‘Bulgarians are heroes’ (‘Balgari yunatsi’) (Tinoo 2011). The rhetoric from the era of the Bulgarian National Revival, which includes the awakening of the sleeping hero, the fight for freedom and the defence of the sacred Homeland, was mobilized in full force. The protests inspired dozens of videos expressing empathy with their cause. The author of a video called ‘Bulgaria Has Woken Up’ (‘Balgaria se sabudi’) expressly notes:

This video is not designed to incite racism, xenophobia or discrimination. This video shows the reality around the protests and I’m declaring this to avoid subsequent accusations. (Wolfheart 2011)

This explanation is most telling of the spirit of the protests which can be generalized with the phrase ‘we aren’t racists, but’. It is interesting that the economic crisis, the trade union strike at the Bulgarian State Railways, and the poorly attended Occupy Sofia protest failed to wake up Bulgaria. It turns out that only protests against ethnic minorities are capable of turning the sheep into lions.

Journalists as an Endangered Species

The last point we want to make concerns the fate of journalism in the new media and political situation in Bulgaria. The year 2011 began with the scandal over the wiretapped phone calls of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and customs chief Vanyo Tanov, which were leaked to the public. These phone calls are incriminating as they suggest possible unlawful contacts between Borisov, Tanov, and a businessman known as Misho Birata (Misho the Beer). The phone calls went viral on the internet where they received a huge number of viewings (Igrivko 2011). This case was scandalous for several reasons. First, the very fact that the telephones of such senior government officials were wiretapped; second, the content of the tapes; and third, the way professional journalists reacted to the situation and used the leaked tapes without checking their authenticity. What is of interest to us from the point of view of video sites is the most popular version of this video – namely, ‘Boyko Borisov, Vanyo Tanov & Misho Birata RAP’ (KrlKirilov 2011), which became even more popular than the original tapes. Bulgarian civil society on video sites did not react by voicing a personal stance or an opinion declared responsibly in a video blog; it reacted with a funny parody in the form of rap. The alternative to the wiretapped conversation circulated in the official media was the remix in citizen media. New voices and themes, however, were not to be heard.

The video sites which refer to the official media which, for their part, serve as a platform for politicians, create the feeling of a circular dialogue in which it makes no difference who is speaking because the same lines are repeated over and over again, only with a different degree of intensity. Thus, when Borisov appeared on Yulian Vuchkov’s talk show the prime minister told the journalist, ‘it’s easier for you to tell things by calling a spade a spade’, and left Vuchkov to express his own extreme opinions without directly expressing them himself (Bludnicata 2011b). Similarly, extreme nationalism on online platforms is nothing more than ‘telling the truth’ beyond the field of the national media where the law demands using words like ‘Roma’ but the attitude towards minorities is often not much different. Of course, there are tensions and disagreements such as, for example, the mass disapproval on video platforms of bTV journalist Mirolyuba Bentaova and her attempt at objective coverage of the events in Katunitsa, because of which she was accused of being anti-Bulgarian. Here are the top comments to her report posted online:

if Volen Siderov was in power he would’ve shut down all anti-Bulgarian television stations (MegaSupremeGod 3 months ago 42)

That Gypsy-loving Benatova serves the world Jewry is obvious, she deserves writhing in Gulag instead of the heroes who fell for Germany digging in a mine from the age of 5 and being shot before the fall of the USSR so as not to bring shame on Bulgaria!!! (nseuropade 3 months ago 23)
(BosforTV 2011)

It is increasingly difficult for journalists to maintain an independent stance as they fall victim both to the populist moods coming from social networking sites and to the business interests that determine the agenda of the media in Bulgaria. It is telling that one of the most popular videos around the presidential elections was of a journalist’s question addressed at Prime Minister Borisov and future president Rosen Plevneliev about how they would guarantee the independence of the media (Taepodong 2011). This question will remain relevant in 2012 as well. One thing is clear: video social networks provide many possibilities for opinion-making but also pose many new problems and dangers that we must learn to recognize.

Videos Used

Bludnicata (2011a). Boyko Borisov v Opasno blizo s Diana Naydenova. 20 March 2011 [online video].

Bludnicata (2011b). Boyko pri Prof. Vuchkov [online video].

BosforTV (2011). Mirolyuba Benatova – tsyaloto vklyuchvane ot Katunitsa [online video].

DarkmasterO (2011). Boyko lazhe kato tsiganka [online video].

Fractal76 (2011). Razdor v semeystvoto na Ataka [online video].

GeorgiTashev (2011). Pogrebalnoto shestvie na Anguel ot Katunitsa [online video].

Igrivko (2011). Scandal: Razgovor mejdu ministar predsedatelia Boiko Boriso i shefa na mitnicite Vanio Tanov [online video].

Ivaylo781 (2011). Kak Gerb razdavat pari. Buying elections in Bulgaria [online video].
Lipci (2011). Vreme za protest [online video].

Lyubodelev (2011). Boyko Borisov razkazva vits. Gospodari na efira [online video].

Kalenderov (2011). Boyko Borisov: studentite da stanat ovchari! [online video].

KrlKirilov (2011). Boyko Borisov, Vanyo Tanov & Misho birata RAP [online video].