Real Human Praise is a Twitter bot account created by Rob Dubbin (screenwriter for The Colbert Report) that combines Fox News anchors and affiliations' names and positive Rotten Tomato reviews into a tweet. This was done in response towards Fox News creating multiple Twitter accounts to interact with opposing opinions on the website.
Since Real Human Praise is a bot, they update these messages every two minutes on Twitter, leaving the hashtag #PraiseFox at the end of each tweet. Its fast-paced and infinite, providing the viewer with an endless supply of information that's simple and to-the-point. The bot works as an ordinary Twitter bot, with no interaction other than its intended purpose. It gives literary content the way its intended to as if its an ordinary user, but doesn't engage with people in the Twitter community as far as responses go, only sending out continuous messages for its audience to react to.
Dubbin's work is satirical and poetic. It draws out the irony of the behavior that Fox News has done and throws it back in their face through humorous exposure and jabs at those affiliated with it, almost in an endearing tone, and does so with a powerful context of dominance. The content is short and sweet, but its goal is more straightforward and rather aggressive in terms of how its presented.
Real Human Praise can also relate towards Hayles's work in regards to "Electronic Literature is Not Print“. Real Human Praise isn’t exactly print like a book, but a tool for its audience to interact with. Its an additional piece of electronic literature that plays a part in understanding a viewpoint in the culture of politics. Hayles also mentions Kittler's work (Gramophone, Film, Typewriter) that has an opening statement "Media determine our situation", which connects to Dubbin's electronic literature by how it addresses the modern culture we participate on on a daily basis. When we as a society are exposed to content, its often through media, and since Real Human Praise is another form of media, we're given another situation to respond and interact with.
Yung Hae Chang’s work Dakota is also similar in the fact that it’s a literary work that lacks control in a general sense. When Real Human Praise is left open, its continuous and constantly has its viewers refresh the page in order to access the latest tweet. Dakota’s factor in not giving the viewer control over itself is present here as well, for there’s no real way to engage with the entirety of the literature since the information it produces is infinite.
This form of electronic literature is important to take into consideration just because of the fact that its another media that questions the competence of a news channel and its content it produces in a unique way in politics. Dubbin sets up the conversation in a ridiculous yet humorous way, taunting the target but also reminding the viewer of what to expect when it comes to political commentary from media sources.
