Good morning!
The brain had a great idea while I slept. But before I tell you what it is, a couple of predicates.
1.Our culture has become one where ?discipline? is highly prized. Indeed, there's many a classroom where children aren't learning because they lack ?discipline?--i.e. they don't come prepared to sit still and listen. People sitting still and listening is also a media ideal. It's what they prefer their audience to be doing, even if sometimes they have to be doing it in a car. Random walking and random talking is a negative.
2.Humans are by nature mobile and we have been given the gift of speech. That being the case, there's obviously a basic conflict between what the culture expects and what people need. People need to express themselves. That's one reason why radio call in shows, including C-SPAN (only different in that we can SEE half the people speaking), are so popular. They provide an opportunity for people to speak and to be heard.
3.As people come to realize that the media treatment of the ?scream? was really an effort to silence Howard Dean, to intimidate him and make him reluctant to express his true feelings in the future (because he threatens to challenge their monopoly in deciding when and how ordinary people are allowed to speak), they are going to become increasingly resentful of what the media are attempting.
4.As the campaign progresses and more and more people are attracted to each venue, it is going to be necessary for the Governor's arrival and appearance to be delayed--i.e. be randomized (the hijacking of four planes at once was only possible because their departures were scheduled and on-time). As a result, the audiences are going to have to get used to waiting more or less.
5.The typical strategy employed to keep waiting audiences from getting bored is to entertain them, either with canned music or live performers. Game show audiences and the audiences for ?live? sitcoms, on the other hand, are used to being ?warmed up.? That is, some individual from the staff provides them with info about what they expect and suggests appropriate responses (laughter, clapping, etc). Oprah's seem to be instructed to ?chant? her name as she come on stage, more or less decorously. This is useful because, in addition to contributing to the format, it enables the participants to express themselves, making it less likely that there will be disruptive outbursts later.
6.Now, to my idea. It seems to me that what is suggested by the above in the case of Gov. Dean's public appearances is that an effort to coach and synchronize the audience while they are waiting might be an opportunity not to be wasted. What if some members of the each audience were provided with placcards, like those displayed in New Mexico (?I scream? ?You scream? ?We all scream? ?For Howard Dean?) and what if the audience were then led in a WHISPERED chant that gradually gets louder until everyone is using their speaking voice? Then, at the end, there might be an of so decorous ?Yeaaaaah? that's whispered like a great communal sigh of satisfaction. Want to bet that would get the bored media embed's attention? Wouldn't hurt to try would it? I think it was the Greeks who discovered that a spoken chorus is very effective when there's a large live audience to be directed.