THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION ... - Index of

constructed nature of media representations.” 77 In a similar way the Yes Men, through the
Internet, are attempting to expose the true nature of those who hold power by manipulating their
self-representations. Like an AdBusters manipulation of a Nike ad, the parody sites of the WTO
and Dow are an attempt to show the power of corporate branding in a new light. Though
television has preceded the Internet by many years, both are now important tools for
institutional critique as well as for outright guerrilla fighting against the commercialization of
media that started off as tools of democracy and dialogue. Both television and the Internet had
the potential to be two-way information systems, to not only disseminate information, but also
to receive it. Now, though, television has become a completely commercial medium with one-way
information flow, from corporations to their consuming audience.
In 1972, Michael Shamberg founded Top Value Television (TVTV) to cover the 1972
presidential nominating conventions. Other artists recruited for the project were Megan Williams
and Allen Rucker as well as members of other video artists’ collectives like Ant Farm, Videofreex,
and Raindance. TVTV first covered the Democratic convention, producing a one-hour video
entitled “The World’s Largest TV Studio,” which received an ebullient review from New York
Times critic John O’Connor, who deemed the video “distinctive and valuable.” 78 This validation
allowed the group to raise enough money to produce a second tape, this time of the Republican
Convention, entitled “Four More Years.” Instead of the usual press coverage, the TVTV crew
77 Laurie Ouellette, “Will the Revolution Be Televised? Camcorders, Activism, and Alternative Television in the
1990s,” in Transmission: Toward a Post-Television Culture, ed. Peter d’Agostino and David Tafler (Thousand
Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc., 1995), 171.
78 Deirdre Boyle, “Guerrilla Television,” in Transmission: Toward a Post-Television Culture, ed. byPeter
d’Agostino and David Tafler (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc., 1995), 155.
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