YouTube: The good and the bad.

“YouTube can be used effectively by political parties and politicians. However, there is also the danger of political figures being subjected to ridicule through satire and parody”…….

It is no myth that many of the world’s political leaders have embraced the communicative power of the internet. One only needs to look at the Australian Prime Minister’s website or the American President’s website to see that they are using the internet in order to further reach out to the population. On their homepages you can see links to social networking sites such as twitter, facebook, myspace and even youtube.

One of the first instances where a political leader has used the internet to communicate their message; to what is a global audience, would be that of John Edwards. This U.S senator decided to announce his candidacy for the then upcoming presidential elections via his personal website. This stunt was not as well received as expected, as only a small number of people actually looked at his website and viewed the video from that single location. Although this political move had all the right intentions, it was not a very successful way releasing such important information. Since this happened, there has been a shift to people using the video sharing site YouTube. Now rather than posting videos on individual sites (with little potential of receiving views unless the site itself is popular) people can now post on a centralized video sharing platform that has now become the standard or norm for this type of online media. People and politicians alike have now joined the bandwagon in order to spread their message to the masses.

Just like any online social media platform, there are many benefits as well as some risks associated their use. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ is no exception. If a politician was to take advantage of the video sharing powerhouse that is YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/ they will no doubt reap a number of benefits. They may also be faced with some very real risks. These benefits and risks have been outlined below:

BENEFITS

• Communicating to a global audience: Network T.V is pretty much restricts a message to the country it was broadcast. However, a message broadcast on YouTube can be seen by anyone and everyone the world over.


• Unlimited lifespan of the message: As it stands today, posts on YouTube are there indefinitely or until the ‘poster’ takes it down. A message broadcast on TV will disappear after it has been broadcast would could be said to have a limited lifespan.


• Reach out to a larger demographic range: including gen x , gen y and more specifically gen z


• Empowers others: YouTube empowers other content producers and even ‘produsers’ to post ‘video replies’ on the website, or even to create their own (often humorous) content geared toward a particular topic. This topic in question could very well be a political leader. A prime example of this idea of creating content relating back to a political leader is that of ‘Obama Girl’ . Whether people think this YouTube clip was good or bad, no one can argue the fact that it boosted awareness and interest in both Obama and the girl singing.

RISKS

• Run the risk of purveying an undesirable image: Video content is able to be edited and manipulated in so many ways, and can either show the subject in a positive or negative light, as well as impose a certain ‘image’ around that person. Take John Howard in this video. Although its content may be important to some, the way that it’s shot and set out is quite mundane and drab.


• Open for parody: It’s safe to say that almost any public figure or celebrity will at one point be parodied on you tube, and political leader are no exception. Just look at the parodies done at people like: Sarah Palin, George Bush, Barack Obama and even our own Kevin Rudd!


• Nasty comments: As we know, YouTube gives people an opportunity to place comments below a previously posted video. Sometimes the comments can become quite abusive and attract the wrong kind of attention. This negative attention may very well deter other people from visiting the page and seeing the video.

So we can see that YouTube can most definitely be used effectively by political parties and politicians. However, they do run the risk of being subjected to ridicule and parody, just like any other person who chooses to post on YouTube.