Wednesday, July 23, 2008
YouTube: A Double-Edged Sword for Political Candidates
PALO ALTO--Two years ago, former Virgina Sen. George Allen lost his bid for reelection after a YouTube video of him calling a Democratic volunteer "macaca" became an instant hit. Today, political "gotchya videos" are surfacing on YouTube every few days, and candidates have never had to be more careful about what they say.
But they've also never had such unfettered access to the voting public. They're able to communicate with voters on their own terms, without a media filter--a phenomenon that Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube, said is changing the media ecosystem and bringing greater transparency to both campaigning and reporting.
Steve was a speaker at the Beet.TV online video executive conference held here at Stanford yesterday.
--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer
http://www.beet.tv/2008/07/youtube-a-doubl.html