The ever so famous youtube has not only been a source for comedic videos, it also became a very useful campaigning tool in the 2008 presidential election. The candidates used Youtube in order to communicate with their voters through videos in a very affordable manner. Many younger voters who did not necessarily watch the news have an easier time searching youtube for campaign speeches, which in turn, makes them form an opinion on the election.
“Online video has quickly become an essential way for the general public to become politically informed and empowered," said Chad Hurley, YouTube Co-Founder and CEO. "At its core, YouTube is about democracy and self-expression and we're proud to be providing politicians with an environment where they can share information with voters."
The “environment” mentioned by Hurley is typically referring to youtube channels. A channel is similar to a profile, all videos, pictures, comments, etc. are loaded onto it. These politician’s channels on youtube make it easier for voters to really get a feel for their campaign. Barack Obama and John McCain both have youtube channels. Check them out!
During the election, there was a campaign called YouTube You Choose 08. This platform allowed the voters to connect with each other by making comments on different news articles, videos, speeches, etc. There were also chats in which people could debate about the candidates. I feel that this was a truly genius idea of YouTube. It was marketed towards the younger voters (ages 18-25) and made many of them realize that their opinion matters. This campaign was not biased towards any candidate; it was simply expressing how important it was for American citizens to vote.
In addition to showing videos provided by the candidate’s campaigns, there were also videos made by other people about the election, which really got YouTube users’ attention. These videos varied from cute with 15,846,077 views to extremely disturbing with 46,065,051 views .There are some people who get offended by the more vulgar videos, but those are the clips that catch the voter’s attentions. I feel that by watching the funnier clips, people can enjoy the election process on a more comedic, laid back level.
Whether people were watching parodies of the candidates or clips from FOX, YouTube really affected the 2008 election. It gave so many people the opportunity to familiarize themselves with this election, and learn each candidate’s stance on so many different issues.
References
Obama's YouTube
McCain's YouTube
Crush on Obama
Clinton and Obama - Umberella Music Video
I find youtube.com a powerful web site for people starting to use, as it is very effective in spreading the news; whether it is personal, group, business interests. So easy to use and post their videos, interviews, movie clips, ads, and their message. I enjoy youtube.com; I follow some of my scholar lectures and live seminars and meetings such as Hamza Yusuf, and Yusuf Estest, Bilal Assad, and others.
ReplyDeleteThere are more to this site than just make fun of people and joke around, I think it is useful to have fun sometime but with what is going on with the worlds it is practical to make benefit in our lives with every things and every things we use, I value my times so much that I can’t use the internet for something I am not going to learn from; maybe it is too much for someone but for me It is the most value I can get even from youtube.com and facebook.com