apathy and dampening any desire to revert to dictatorships of the past. In this case, a large poster of the deposed dictator, Ben Ali, suddenly reappeared, disclosing a warning message when it was torn down. A very remarkable misunderstanding of the real power of digital social media is endemic to the standard treatments of Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns, which are often presented as the coming-of-age of new media and the displacing of traditional media. The real story is rather more complex. The enthusiasm generated by the Obama campaign in 2008 is neatly symbolized by this barn in Ohio. An online activist requested, through the website, the correct Pantone colours and logo design, erected the necessary scaffolding and painted the whole barn in the Obama decal.