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Politicking on YouTube

Posted by Arif on Wednesday, 08/23/06

just when you hoped it was going to be a quiet election season for the internet:

When Republican Sen. Conrad Burns briefly struggled to keep his eyes open at a Montana farm bill hearing last Thursday, a state Democratic party operative was right there taping it. Within hours, the video of Burns was on YouTube and available to viewers around the world.

Not at all surprising that campaigns are using YouTube and similar services for this kind of thing.  At a recent PTP training, I gained some insight into how groups are using MySpace in similar ways. 

I'd love to hear about community organizing groups that are doing any work with video along these lines - we generally see groups invest in putting their video content on their website.  What I'm curious about is the thought process behind releasing video on something like YouTube, where the audience is potentially larger, but the message, and importantly, the context, more dilute.  Maybe.  As I've said before, I don't entirely grok this "new media" thing and how it intersects with the work that we do at PTP.

Filed under Internet, Online Campaigns, Organizing, Web

Comments

Could you never use the word "grok" again, so that I can keep reading your blog? Please???
Submitted by amanda (not verified) on Wednesday, 08/30/2006 - 12:38pm
Haven't you ever thrown an absurd question into conversation just to see if the person you were talking to was actually listening? Grok would be something like that.
Submitted by Arif (not verified) on Wednesday, 08/30/2006 - 12:41pm
Check out Pills Profit Protest (search http://video.google.com for "AIDS activism") -- I don't have tons of answers, but they've posted segments of a documentary that is also touring film festivals. For groups that have made videos and are actively using them as organizing tools, it is an interesting mechanism for sharing video without having to invest in the capacity to do it on your own server (you can have much higher resolution clips than, say, the video clips here on progressivetech.org). You can still use the video on your website, you just don't have to host it. When it comes to viral media, though, you loose me. I, too, am on the hunt for interesting examples of organizations using viral videos as part of their organizing strategy and winning. Blanketing the internet with sleeping senators is nifty, but last time I checked those dudes were figure heads anyway. He wasn't supposed to be listening--somewhere his aid was taking notes aplenty. The Chevy ads are also nifty, but people aren't giving up their SUVs in droves. The hunt continues: someone, please, take this beyond neato for me?
Submitted by amanda (not verified) on Wednesday, 08/30/2006 - 12:48pm

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