PoliTech

Politicians Have Discovered YouTube

Cassidy: YouTube hits the big time in a short time

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., must be the most creative user. He only has a handful of clips, but one stars Ben Stein in a relatively funny quiz-show bit.

The most prolific political YouTuber is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. She’s posted 58 videos. OK, her staff has posted 58 videos.

“It’s about reaching people in new and innovative ways,” says Jennifer Crider, a Pelosi spokeswoman.

There will be more from the likes of Kingston and Pelosi. And from folks such as Steve Westly and Phil Angelides, who went YouTubular in the Democrat gubernatorial primary.

Think of it: In the course of six months, little YouTube has gone from novelty to marketing machine to political platform.

It’s a double edged sword though…

read more | digg story

One comment

  1. Here is the full text of the article for those who don’t want to provide the identity thieves any more information than they can get already.

    Sheesh! What’s with newspaper sites?

    Cassidy: YouTube hits the big time in a short time
    By Mike Cassidy
    Mercury News

    YouTube is so over.

    What’s that? How can it be over when you don’t even know what it is?

    Of course you know what it is. It’s been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Mercury News, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Fortune, Time and on blogs, blogs and more blogs.

    It’s been on NPR and even Bill Gates has said he likes it. Says he’s not sure how it will make money or deal with sticky copyright problems, but he likes it.

    YouTube. It’s the Web site where anybody can post video clips of anything. The place where you can watch “Star Trek Karaoke” or a “A Dance and Talk about Professional Porn vs. Amateur” or “Power Tool Drag Races.”

    Why, you ask, would anybody want to post video clips of almost anything? Because they can, silly. Isn’t that what the technology revolution is all about? Empowering us to do things we never knew we needed to do?

    San Mateo roots

    YouTube is the classic Silicon Valley story. Yes, classic story from a place barely 30 years old. Isn’t that what the technology revolution is all about? Being barely 30?

    YouTube is a young San Mateo company founded by two young guys. Yes, they started it in a garage. And yes, it became internationally known and used by millions in the blink of an eye.

    Nobody had heard of YouTube before last fall. By this week, the company was reporting that 80 million videos a day were being viewed on the site.

    About half a billion video views a week.

    So, why is YouTube over? Because it’s growing up.

    Say what you will about YouTube — that it’s stupid, ingenious, a huge waste of time, a gigantic repository of creativity, the wave of the future, the end of the world — it is changing.

    First, its founders, Chad Hurley, 29, and Steve Chen, 27, are working on an online ad system for the site, the Wall Street Journal says.

    Second, they’re cutting deals with the suits (OK, with the sport coats and open-collar polo shirts) from Hollywood. NBC will start posting promotional clips of its shows on YouTube. NBC will also promote YouTube on the network.

    Mainstream users

    And finally, politicians have discovered YouTube. Isn’t that the way it always goes? Anytime the techno-wizards deliver a new entertainment platform, one obscenely wealthy industry moves in to take advantage of it.

    No, not porn. Politics.

    It’s starting small, but it will grow. Look among the clips of a cat pulling a man’s pants down and boys falling (literally) off a log and you’ll find political pitches from elected officials.

    U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., must be the most creative user. He only has a handful of clips, but one stars Ben Stein in a relatively funny quiz-show bit.

    The most prolific political YouTuber is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. She’s posted 58 videos. OK, her staff has posted 58 videos.

    “It’s about reaching people in new and innovative ways,” says Jennifer Crider, a Pelosi spokeswoman.

    There will be more from the likes of Kingston and Pelosi. And from folks such as Steve Westly and Phil Angelides, who went YouTubular in the Democrat gubernatorial primary.

    Think of it: In the course of six months, little YouTube has gone from novelty to marketing machine to political platform. The new TV is starting to look a little like the old TV.

    Maybe that’s what the technology revolution is all about. The newest, new thing becoming an everyday presence at which we simply shrug.

    YouTube. We hardly knew you.

    Like

Comments are closed.