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YouTube’s Impact on Mainstream Media

Background

YouTube, the video-sharing site, was created in February 2005, on which individuals could upload and watch videos. The site was founded by former employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim in a small office, completely unaware then of the major impact their website would have on society in the later years. The rapid growth and increasing popularity of the site attracted two major investors; Time Warner and Sequoia Capital. This allowed YouTube to expand their site further. Within 6 years of their initial video, Karim’s “Me at the Zoo” uploaded April 23, 2005, over three billion videos are viewed daily and forty eight hours of video are uploaded per minute.

YouTube has completely revolutionized the way society interacts with mainstream media. This seemingly new website is able to combine components from various outlets of media like the newspaper, radio and television into one main form, delivered to a wide network on one accessible site available right at one’s fingers. In recent years, the video sharing site has made a huge impact on print media’s effect on political issues. YouTube has revolutionized the way politics is handled and removed the middle man, newspapers and print culture.

Journalism in the Age of YouTube

One major component of YouTube is its ability to spread news to anyone in the world through video. Thousands of clips from major news station broadcasts are uploaded daily, which allows one to keep the public constantly informed. YouTube is increasingly becoming more popular than reading the newspaper or waiting for the six o’clock news broadcast thanks to its easy access and ability to reach anyone in many languages, illustrating that “videos transcend language barriers in a way written text cannot.”

The YouTube Effect

Derived from the CNN Effect, a theory that Cable Network News (CNN) had a major impact on the conduct of states’ foreign policy, comes the YouTube Effect. First introduced by Moises Naim in the Los Angeles Times, the YouTube Effect is defined as “the phenomenon whereby video clips, often produced by individuals acting on their own, are rapidly disseminated worldwide on websites such as YouTube.” Naim argues that many economic, political and environmental issues only gain worldwide attention when it is posted on YouTube, like they did in the past when broadcasted on CNN. Nowadays though, “although international news operations employ thousands of professional journalists, they will never be as omnipresent as millions of people carrying cell phones that can record video.” This introduction of citizen journalism on YouTube blurs the lines of what is news and what is fictional when posted on the video sharing site.

Citizen Journalism

In 2009, YouTube introduced the ‘YouTube Reporters’ Center’ to help one learn more about how to report the news. Featuring some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations, it shares instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting and to teach the viewer how to become a citizen journalist. Living up to YouTube’s logo, ‘Broadcast Yourself', everyday YouTube individuals are able to upload their videos that are considered newsworthy to the Citizen News page for all to watch.

A major downside of this addition to YouTube is that it now opens up parts of the news agenda to non-professionals, therefore blurring the edges of news for the audience. What could appear to be an actual video of an event occurring could actually be a staged act, creating confusion for the viewers. Moreover, broadcast news organizations are now using these non-professional videos on air. Although these clips may be beneficial for a story, one must ask if the story is legitimate. Thus, YouTube’s Citizen News page allows for viewers to be journalists but it impacts major mainstream news as it questions the validity of the news being presented.

Another drawback to the accessibility of ‘news’ clips on YouTube is the ability for anyone, at anytime to upload a video, even coming straight from their phone. Now with this power, nothing is ever safe or protected from the public, illustrated through the correlation of YouTube and politics in recent years. However illegitimate and questionable some of the material posted on YouTube may be, the other side of this examines the benefit YouTube has as a platform for politics as it allows direct contact with politicians. The following section will examine both sides to this case.

The Relationship of Politics and YouTube

Recent elections have been dubbed as the “YouTube Elections” for the reason that politicians and their supporters are using the website more than any other form of mainstream media to connect to its public. This modern tactic is both beneficial and harmful, in the sense that videos of slander are able to be uploaded on the website as well. As James Wolcott of Vanity Fair says, “YouTube puts politics literally at one’s fingertips in the active present, making it a narrative any mutual can join.”

Ramya Raghavan, politics manager for YouTube, further describes the politics YouTube relationship as a “section where you are able to see a 360 view of politics. It will have what the candidates are saying, the gotcha videos, the parodies.” This means, in today’s society, nothing is off limits when it comes to YouTube.

Senator George Allen Incident

A prime example that highlights the negative side YouTube has on politics is an incident involving Senator George Allen. In August of 2006, the Virginia Republican was caught on tape calling a college student of Indian descent a racial slur. The video immediately emerged on YouTube, quickly becoming one of the most-viewed videos on the site at the time. After its skyrocketing popularity on the web, it spread to print and all over television. Despite numerous apologies made from Allen immediately following, his stock as a contender in the 2008 Republican presidential nomination plummeted.

2008 YouTube Election

Long ago were the times when political enthusiasts could write to a newspaper or phone in to a network television program. With the increasing popularity the Internet and YouTube had created, CNN adapted to the times and during the 2008 Presidential Campaign teamed up with YouTube for a live candidate debate. In July 2007, in the first of its kind, democratic presidential candidates faced questions directly from voters live via YouTube The two hour debate averaged 2.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research and delivered the highest viewership for a debate among adults 18-34 in history.

By Election Day, 39 percent of voters had watched some sort of campaign related video online, YouTube logged about two hundred million views of official candidate videos and there were as many as one billion views of videos created by average Americans and groups not associated with the campaigns. YouTube “became the town square for America’s future” as said by TechPresident co-founder Andrew Rasiej.

To further illustrate the extraordinary ways YouTube is able to reach voters, CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield noted that sixteen million people voted in 2004 in the Democratic presidential primaries, and eight million in Republican contests. Taking in the account of the hundreds of views YouTube campaign videos drew in, the numbers significantly show how many more people are becoming engaged.

These high numbers thus illustrates that by adapting to a modern media outlet like YouTube, politicians are able to reach more people than through print media, especially in the hard to entice younger generation.

YouChoose `08

Launched March 1, 2007, YouTube ‘YouChoose08’ grouped the seventeen Presidential hopefuls' YouTube pages. The candidates uploaded speeches, talk show appearances and various clips up on their user sites for all to see as a part of their official campaign. Along with it, citizens could ask the candidates questions, allowing the candidates to respond via video. This approach to the presidential campaign allowed voters to see more of the candidates and their policies in one convenient link, a luxury not available through newspapers and television programs.

President Obama & YouTube

Barack Obama fully utilized the convenience of the effective site during his presidential campaign which paid off immensely.

One key moment in the election where the video sharing site paid off was mid campaign when Barack Obama was being ridiculed throughout society because of his relationship with controversial pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose provocative sermons were being passed around the web and YouTube. Obama immediately took to the site himself and posted a video rebuttal which entailed a thirty seven minute long speech on race. The video attracted over 5.3 million views dubbing is the “most-viewed video ever uploaded presidential candidate to YouTube.” A smart move for the party as it calmed the controversy and as Steve Grove, YouTube’s head of news and politics says; “The Obama campaign understood that YouTube’s not just about short clips, or commercials...It’s about making yourself available to the people.”

Once elected as president and realizing the impact YouTube has on the public, President Obama held a first of its kind group interview via YouTube in February 2010. YouTube allowed people to submit questions and then a selective panel chose the best to present to the President. It was a showcase for YouTube as it was one of their first live, streamed video interviews and attracted more than 12,000 questions, illustrating the great interest in politics and the wide audience it reaches through YouTube.

President Obama and his administration maintain an active YouTube channel that uploaded more than 650 videos in its first year. Through YouTube, political candidates and the President himself, are able to remove a barrier placed by print media and interact directly with the public through this video phenomena.

Looking Forward: 2012 Election

In May of 2011, YouTube unveiled ‘YouTube Town Hall’, a kind of virtual debate platform that presents select members of Congress squaring off on a wide array of issues. On this channel, each speaker will be able to explain his or her position in a one minute video. To encourage viewer participation, users will be asked to propose further issues for candidates to debate. These issues will be covered during the January 2012 Republican debate where it will be streamed online, accompanied by live comment feeds from viewers worldwide.

All this furthers the impact YouTube has had on politics since its creation and hopefully will further encourage voters to engage in the issues and to embrace politics more so in their lives. By using such a popular media site to broadcast debates and candidates stances, YouTube and USA Candidates are also trying to reach out to a budding bracket of young generations and encourage them to use their right to vote.

Youth and Politics

Through this new generation of technology, we are able to reach the new generation of voters. With many thanks to politicians connected to the public via YouTube, many more young voters aged eighteen to twenty nine are being exposed to party’s platforms and the issues pertaining to the elections.

Referring back to the 2008 USA President Election, Barack Obama’s attention towards the video sharing site paid off immensely. The 2008 Presidential Election had the second largest youth voter movement in American history. Between twenty two and twenty four million young Americans ages eighteen to twenty nine voted, resulting in an estimated youth voter turnout of between 49.3 and 54.4 percent, according to an exit poll analysis by CIRCLE, an increase of one to six percent over the 2004 turnout. Claire Morgenstern, "Election 2008: Second-largest youth voter turnout in American history" The Tartan (2008): http://thetartan.org/2008/11/10/news/elections Project coordinator for Declare Yourself, Erika Johansson stresses the fact that “young people absolutely made the difference in this election, without them, he (Obama) would have lost the election.”Claire Morgenstern, "Election 2008: Second-largest youth voter turnout in American history" The Tartan (2008): http://thetartan.org/2008/11/10/news/elections As bold of a statement as this may be, it is completely true, as sixty-six percent of young voters cast their ballot for Barack Obama, the largest every showing for a presidential candidate in this age group.Claire Morgenstern, "Election 2008: Second-largest youth voter turnout in American history" The Tartan (2008): http://thetartan.org/2008/11/10/news/elections

As illustrated, YouTube has completely revolutionized the way politics is conducted in the United States of America, as well as many other countries. However great the 2008 voting turnout was for young voters, they are still a somewhat inactive group in regards to casting ballot. In the past, it was thought that young voters did not engage in such an instrumental element of our lives because of their lack in political knowledge and because there were no issues of interest to young people. This can be far from true as the issues raised in debates are as much benefit to our generation as any. The claim that this age demographic lacks political knowledge is false as well due to the accessibility youth have to newspapers and computers to learn about the elections and candidates. Because of what YouTube has achieved, the young voters demographic have so many platforms to learn about political parties. Such claims that one is unable to vote because it does not relate to them or they have little knowledge on the matter is  ignorant. Due to YouTube’s constant innovations to further raise awareness, young people have no excuse to not get out there and vote for issues that most certainly pertain to their lives in the present and future.

Conclusion

To conclude, since the creation of YouTube in 2005, videos and information are able to be shared through the simple click of a button. The ‘YouTube Effect’ has enables citizen journalists to broadcast issues that can be viewed by anyone at anytime. It has completely influenced society and the way news is spread. As outlined above, society as a whole is now able to view a number of videos online at the click of a button. Most importantly, YouTube has revolutionized the way politics and elections are conducted. Illustrated through the American 2008 Presidential Campaign, candidates took to the video sharing site to broadcast their platforms and stand points on important issues millions of viewers expressed concern about. Most importantly, with politics shifting to YouTube, younger citizens are becoming exposed to political affairs and voting after a long age of decline. Hopefully, through the constant exposure we as a generation are faced with, it will encourage us to engage in politics and exercise our ability to vote, with recognition towards YouTube’s effect.

Works Cited