Online Video

Also known as YouTube
==Insights==
===Feb 2007 News from YouTube===
YouTube to offer hub for political videos
Friday, March 02, 2007
By Jim Kuhnhenn, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Politicians have not cherished most of
their YouTube moments, those snippets of candid camera
video posted on the popular Internet site.
Now comes a friendlier YouTube politics.
On Wednesday, the online video Web site announced the
beginning of a voter education initiative that will
serve as an information hub for political candidates
to showcase their own videos.
Already on board are the major 2008 presidential
candidates -- Republicans Rudy Giuliani, John McCain
and Mitt Romney, and Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton,
John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson.
"This is such an important election coming up that we
just wanted to make sure we did everything we could in
terms of helping candidates get their messages out,
but also helping voters start a dialogue with those
candidates on issues that really hit home at them
individually," said Jordan Hoffner, YouTube's director
of content partnerships.
The new effort is part of a technological awakening by
political campaigns to the myriad ways of reaching
voters, beyond the traditional mix of coffee
klatsches, stump speeches and expensive broadcast ads.
Not only have political candidates refined their own
campaign Web sites, they are now creating profile
pages on MySpace.com, the heavily trafficked online
hangout, and tailoring their video messages to
YouTube.
As with any medium used by politicians, the Internet
can be an asset and a hazard.
Former Sen. George Allen, R-Va., never seemed to
recover from a video that showed him using the word
"macaca" to address a young man of Indian descent who
was a campaign worker for his opponent. Video clips on
YouTube showed former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.,
nodding off during a committee hearing. Both Allen and
Burns lost their re-election campaigns last November.
But politicians are recognizing the power of the
Internet, and YouTube in particular.
In January, a video on YouTube showed Romney voicing
moderate social positions during a 1994 debate with
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Romney replied promptly
with his own YouTube video, disavowing his old views.
Republican pollster David Winston said YouTube
benefits from having two audiences -- young viewers
and journalists.
"Here's the challenge that these campaigns have: There
is this huge clutter, and how do you break through the
clutter," Mr. Winston said. "One of the things that
YouTube has been shown to be able to do, with some
success, is to help break through that clutter."
The new YouTube site will allow candidates to feature
their own video "channels" in one location. There is
no cost to appearing on the site. The video is the
same as what the candidates have on their own sites,
though it might be packaged differently.
Mr. McCain, for instance, has a series of short
videos, many of them filmed in one session against a
simple white backdrop. He addresses his vision of
honor, he discusses government spending, the
environment and his affinity for presidents Ronald
Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt.
YouTube officials said that for now, the site is
limited to candidates of legally registered political
parties, but said they might consider opening it to
other political entities, such as groups that advocate
for or against candidates.
YouTube's Hoffner envisions a video give-and-take
between candidates and viewers.
"When users post comments or post video comments and
the candidates respond in kind, that's just going to
take on a life of its own," he said.
And that's when politicians, who tend to obsess about
staying on message, could enter riskier territory.
"These technologies are not as controlled or
controllable as other technologies," said Bruce
Bimber, a political scientist at the University of
California at Santa Barbara and an expert on
technology and politics. "What's more interesting to
me will be the adaptation and use of what video is
posted there as people comment on it, post links to it
... and it gets out of the channel itself that it was
intended for."
category:technology
category:freedom