According to YouTube, people watch “more than 70 million videos on this site daily.” That’s a very impressive number. The “consumer media company” has been used most often to show original, homemade videos, but networks and even politicians are beginning to see its potential.
YouTube executives admit that political content is becoming more common, according to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post. A video supporting John McCain has been popular recently. A club naysaying Bush is the sixth most popular group on the site. And a number of clips making fun of Hillary Clinton have been floating around.
Not all of the political videos come from your average citizens, either. “Former Virginia governor Mark Warner, a Democrat who is weighing a White House bid, has posted a two-minute video . . .” Kurtz wrote. “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has a channel featuring C-SPAN clips of various Democrats . . . . Krissy Keefer, a Green Party candidate challenging Pelosi, also has a channel, which includes a taped endorsement by a San Francisco street poet named Diamond Dave.”
There could be problems. As Kurtz points out, posters do not have to identify themselves correctly. So it is possible that one candidate could post a video disparaging another while registered as “Mother Theresa.” Or, a user calling him/herself by a politician’s name could put up content insulting that same person.
The increasing political content is still a “good” thing, though, in my opinion. Anything that generates awareness is useful, and, to be frank, many of the videos are quite funny. Given the large audience available through YouTube, the number of politicians working through the site is only going to grow.
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Doug is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
