| Summary: | Showing Sarah Palin’s “Exorcism” on the Web. Inquiries into the Political Impact of Religious Images – In September 2008, a video appeared on the Internet showing Sarah Palin, then vice-presidential candidate, receiving "a protection against witchcraft" during a religious celebration. The sequence was immediately taken up by the international media, who asked questions and investigated the connections between these images and the political activities of the Republican. This article follows the circulation of the video through different scenes of visibility, going from the mainstream media to the Internet website of the church where it was shot, by way of a blog which drew public attention to these images. The inquiry brings to light how this film was understood in various contexts, and shows the impact of this interpretative work in 2011, with the advent of the Tea Party and within the horizon of the next presidential election. In 2008, the video appeared in the mainstream media as an illustration of the Palin’s “bigotry”; in 2011, it helped delineate a “theocratic” threat posed to American democracy.
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