The Politics of YouTube

Today on WashingtonPost.com I caught an article about YouTube’s emergence on the political scene entitled, “In YouTube Clips, a Political Edge” by Howard Kurtz. While it is no secret that YouTube has evolved into a hotbed for political commentary by the masses, it appears that “official” content is being repurposed as well.

I had already seen a lot of the homemade political rants and spoofs, as well as the ubiquitous clips of John Stewart and the cable news networks on YouTube, but the article inspired me to hunt down some content from “official” sources. Of course, the first one I found was from Hillary Clinton. The clip, entitled “No Public Schedule,” was taken from the New York Legislative Correspondents Association Show.

This clip shows exactly why homegrown videos are generally much more viral. “No Public Schedule” is clearly scripted, the clip is fairly long, the dialogue is boring, and although it is an attempt at humor, it is not particularly funny. The best aspect of the whole piece is the cameo appearances by a few NYC celebrities, including Donald Trump. If campaigns plan on utilizing YouTube (and other similar services) in their efforts, they need to do a lot better than this.