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One giant YouTube leap for 2008 White House hopefuls
posted Monday, 23 July 2007
Is it a new dawn in US politics, or just another gimmick in an endless and overcrowded 2008 White House race?
Senator Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential rivals clamber on stage Monday in South Carolina to face questions not from some highly paid, starched television news star, but supposedly ordinary voters airing unfiltered demands for answers in YouTube videos.
The first CNN/YouTube debate is billed as a bid to ditch stale, staged showdowns for an edgy and risky leap into cyberspace.
Fueled by short, grainy, jerky, and often quirky videos uploaded to the YouTube site, many filmed in bedrooms and living rooms, the event is already being hailed as a political milestone.
Comparisons have even been drawn to the moment when another new media - television - changed US politics forever.
In 1960, television viewers judged Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy as more zestful than his sweaty, stubbled Republican rival Richard Nixon. The rest is history.
So far, voters have loaded more than 1,700 videos, poignant, odd, and even risqué, onto YouTube. The list will be pared down before Monday's debate and played to the candidates.
One YouTube user called Kim, rips off a wig to reveal a bald head, and asks candidates about huge healthcare costs and her battle with cancer.
Some questioners ask about Darfur, Iraq, healthcare, and education. Some 45 million Americans have no healthcare insurance whatsoever.
Zany riffs, too unzipped for live TV, but in tune with the anything-goes Internet, also proliferate.
"JonJustChillin" asks candidates how they will work hemp, or cannabis plants, into policy platforms.
It is a fair bet that in decades on the national stage, Hillary Clinton has never been quizzed by a Batman doll, as she is, rather suggestively, in one video.
In another spot, a naturalist called Dr. Rachel Jakuba, in snorkel and goggles, pleads for help for sea turtles - hardly everyday fare on the campaign trail in Iowa or New Hampshire.
Candidates are desperate for any link with cyberspace to appeal to young voters who spend hours glued to YouTube so campaigns have spent big dollars for a presence on the site and other platforms such as FaceBook.
John Edwards, chasing down Clinton and Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic race, said - in an online, YouTube video, naturally - that the debate is a great idea.
"What happens when members of the media ask all the questions is that they ask all the questions over and over," he said.
When the debate was announced in June, it was hailed as a turning point.
"For the first time in the history of presidential debates, voters from around the country will be able to ask the future president of the United States a question in video form and hear the answer." said Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube.
But some experts have reservations.
Joshua Levy, associate editor of TechPresident.com, an online politics forum blogged that filtering of questions by professional journalists defeated the object.
"This stuff is much less fascinating if a third-party gatekeeper comes in and tells us what is interesting and what is fluff," he wrote.
Already, 2008 candidates are adept at using YouTube-style videos to reach voters in new ways: Clinton launched her campaign in one, and Obama even posted short films of him having dinner with selected supporters.
Hopefuls from both sides of the political spectrum have also used the Web to raise huge sums in the campaign financing race. But it is unknown whether the hype will morph into votes.
"To me, it feels more like an evolution than a revolution," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
For all its claims of a grassroots crusade, Monday's debate is a marrying of two vast media brands, CNN and YouTube, which is owned by Google.
And a glance through submitted videos suggests individual campaigns, and political professionals may already be stacking the deck. Republican candidates will have their own YouTube/CNN debate in September.
Senator Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential rivals clamber on stage Monday in South Carolina to face questions not from some highly paid, starched television news star, but supposedly ordinary voters airing unfiltered demands for answers in YouTube videos.
The first CNN/YouTube debate is billed as a bid to ditch stale, staged showdowns for an edgy and risky leap into cyberspace.
Fueled by short, grainy, jerky, and often quirky videos uploaded to the YouTube site, many filmed in bedrooms and living rooms, the event is already being hailed as a political milestone.
Comparisons have even been drawn to the moment when another new media - television - changed US politics forever.
In 1960, television viewers judged Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy as more zestful than his sweaty, stubbled Republican rival Richard Nixon. The rest is history.
So far, voters have loaded more than 1,700 videos, poignant, odd, and even risqué, onto YouTube. The list will be pared down before Monday's debate and played to the candidates.
One YouTube user called Kim, rips off a wig to reveal a bald head, and asks candidates about huge healthcare costs and her battle with cancer.
Some questioners ask about Darfur, Iraq, healthcare, and education. Some 45 million Americans have no healthcare insurance whatsoever.
Zany riffs, too unzipped for live TV, but in tune with the anything-goes Internet, also proliferate.
"JonJustChillin" asks candidates how they will work hemp, or cannabis plants, into policy platforms.
It is a fair bet that in decades on the national stage, Hillary Clinton has never been quizzed by a Batman doll, as she is, rather suggestively, in one video.
In another spot, a naturalist called Dr. Rachel Jakuba, in snorkel and goggles, pleads for help for sea turtles - hardly everyday fare on the campaign trail in Iowa or New Hampshire.
Candidates are desperate for any link with cyberspace to appeal to young voters who spend hours glued to YouTube so campaigns have spent big dollars for a presence on the site and other platforms such as FaceBook.
John Edwards, chasing down Clinton and Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic race, said - in an online, YouTube video, naturally - that the debate is a great idea.
"What happens when members of the media ask all the questions is that they ask all the questions over and over," he said.
When the debate was announced in June, it was hailed as a turning point.
"For the first time in the history of presidential debates, voters from around the country will be able to ask the future president of the United States a question in video form and hear the answer." said Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube.
But some experts have reservations.
Joshua Levy, associate editor of TechPresident.com, an online politics forum blogged that filtering of questions by professional journalists defeated the object.
"This stuff is much less fascinating if a third-party gatekeeper comes in and tells us what is interesting and what is fluff," he wrote.
Already, 2008 candidates are adept at using YouTube-style videos to reach voters in new ways: Clinton launched her campaign in one, and Obama even posted short films of him having dinner with selected supporters.
Hopefuls from both sides of the political spectrum have also used the Web to raise huge sums in the campaign financing race. But it is unknown whether the hype will morph into votes.
"To me, it feels more like an evolution than a revolution," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
For all its claims of a grassroots crusade, Monday's debate is a marrying of two vast media brands, CNN and YouTube, which is owned by Google.
And a glance through submitted videos suggests individual campaigns, and political professionals may already be stacking the deck. Republican candidates will have their own YouTube/CNN debate in September.
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