YouTube, TV and Politics.

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Clearly, politicians in the US discovered YouTube a long time ago. They've used it very effectively , and very ineffectively, to peddle/propogate their messages. The Economist has a brief write-up on it as well. Caveat emptor: I can't claim to know too much about US politics and certainly am not an active follower.

However, two new political-ish videos caught my attention, because I thought they're different and may indicate a new level of Internet video-savvy. So far, the political videos I remember seeing fall into two categories:
  • the first is the simple "Listen to me" variety. This is just the candidate sitting/standing/walking around delivering a message.
  • The second was the "look what happened" variety; typically another event that the candidate (or his/her supporters) want to draw attention to. Think the Michael J. Fox controversy and the macaca controversy.

This was content that would have worked just fine even on television. The only difference was that distribution and spread was via the Internet. Thats why I found the following two YouTube videos interesting. These were not exactly re-purposed TV clips or news clips.












The Romney video is shot in a documentary, yet home-video/reality TV, style (probably originally intended to be in a documentary) and while the Slate rips on it, I still think its not a bad one for Romney, who wants to be more "human" to voters, to release. The Hillary-Bill "Sopranos" spoof I think is much more interesting, simply because its so clearly content for online video, and so very much in the vernacular of YouTube. You need to have seen the Soprano's finale to get it, you need to be conversant with the practice of spoofing online video, and Bill and Hillary are actually acting!!!

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