2008 Presidential Hopefuls Use You Tube Accounts to Reach Voters

You Tube was created in February 2005 as a service for users to upload, view and share videos online. The site quickly gained popularity among 12 to 17 year olds and was named Time magazine's 2006 "Invention of the Year". In October 2006, Google acquired You Tube. This year, 2008 Presidential hopefuls are joining You Tube as part of their campaign strategies. John Edwards was the first to join You Tube a year ago, followed by Hillary Clinton 10 months ago. Barack Obama and Mike Gravel quickly followed suit a month later. Currently 17 candidates have You Tube accounts, uploading videos that even non-registered users can view.

Some government officials succumb to lobbying pressure from wealthy big name Internet players trying to mopolize Internet access and control the Internet environment. Small Internet radio shows are being priced out of the free market by costly government regulations. Many of these stations are controversial talk shows presenting the kind of news the government does not approve for mainstream media. By embracing and using sites like You Tube and My Space the 2008 Presedential hopefuls exhibit hope for citizens weary of big government that seems to want to control every aspect of citizens lives. Is it simply trendy and low cost campaigning, or can You Tube accounts help Presidential hopefuls garner votes?

It is reported that 100 million video clips are viewed daily and 65,000 new videos are uploaded every day. According to Nielsen/Net Ratings, You Tube receives 20 million visitors every month. 56% of those visitors are males, 44% females and the 12 to 17 year age group still accounts for most of the activity. The kids can not vote. Perhaps Senator Obama uses the demographic in his favor. In "Barack Obama YouTube Spotlight" video, he asks our youth to share their stories about what they are doing on a local level to help make the world a better place.

You Tube makes it easy for people to post a video response to videos they watch. The teens may not be able to vote, but they can create videos and love to do so. By asking them to participate Mr. Obama is encouraging them to become involved in the political process. He is also creating a collection of stories that might give an encouraging view of the country's youth when most people are writing them off as a lost cause. He hopes to "stitch together" stories to illuminate to the country that "...this next generation wants to grab the baton and lead us forward" The video was posted on June 13, 2007 with 260,307 views, 218 comments and 20 video responses as of June 15th.

Among Hillary Clinton's most viewed videos is "HillCast: Roadmap Out of Iraq" which has received 56,796 views. "I Need Your Advice" received 606,074 views. Forget straw polls, YouTube allows people to rate videos on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being "awesome". This video was rated by 3,485 people and is currently at 2. She tells viewers the she needs help with one of the most important question of the campaign: "our" campaign song. This may have been her video response to Mr. Obama's "Barack Obama on Monday Night Football". Ms. Clinton has posted 37 videos including "Maya Angelou on Hillary" and "Message from President Clinton" a touching video as to her character. 88 people rated it giving it 4 stars.

Currently Obama has had over 3 million Channel views. A YouTube "channel" is a members "homepage". Channels can be personalized and typically have a brief bio. Uploaded videos are listed as well as subscribers and friends of the channel. People can also post a comment. Hillary's channel has had 674,368 views. John Edwards channel has had 553,637 views. Senator John McCain's latest video, "Let's Go Racing!" is a noisy look at Mr. McCain and his wife, Cindy's day at the Coca Cola 600 races with a few words from the Senator at the end.

Can joining You Tube help 2008 Presidential hopefuls with their campaigns? That remains to be seen, but it does offer the Presidential hopefuls a new way to reach the people with their message. They can also get instant feedback through comments from people who probably would not take time to write a letter.

Resources:
Barack Obama You Tube
Hillary Clinton You Tube
John Edwards You Tube
John McCain You Tube
Various Authors,YouTube, Wikipedia

Candidates with You Tube accounts: You Choose '08

Authors Note: Associated Content Editor said this story has already been submitted by CP's. Several searches for articles about Presedential hopefuls with You Tube accounts have not brought up any results. I apologize if this is old news, it was new news to me!