How Video is Shaking Up The Political World

Internet video is leading the way to a new era in communication. Video has changed the way we apply for jobs, how we watch the daily news, and now how we interview our Presidential candidates.

Presidential debates have thus far consisted of candidates lined up on a stage to answer questions generally asked by a prominent news figure, member of the media, or possibly a participating audience member. But long gone are those stiff debate days thanks to CNN's incorporation of uber popular video website YouTube.

Similar to most user-centric sites of the Web 2.0 era, the debates are following suit by allowing the voters to customize not only their questions, but the presentation of their queries in a highly visual way. Referred to by Wired magazine as the œmost democratic presidential debate ever,the use of YouTube is transferring the power from the media to the average American voter with a video camera. Participants are encouraged to make the videos original and personal, in addition to making them look good, while adhering to YouTube’s Terms of Use.

In the recent Democratic debate, questions ranged from controversial issues about the war to more personal questions like “who was your favorite teacher. One of the most visually dramatic videos showed three Americans standing at a refuge camp near Darfur, asking how these Presidential candidates propose to return the children, standing directly in front of them, to a safer Darfur. I can only imagine that seeing children from Darfur on the screen had a greater impact on the Presidential hopefuls.

On September 17th, the Republican candidates will have their turn to face the people of YouTube with the site currently accepting video submissions until September 16th.

The CNN YouTube debates are only one piece in the addition of technology to the upcoming 2008 election. Most candidates now write blogs, create MySpace profiles and Facebook groups, which seems to be more directed to the under 40 crowd.

With the incorporation of these social networks, blogs, websites, and now videos into this race for the Oval Office, could this be the way to involve the younger generation, the unlikely voting community, in the upcoming vote? Only the poll turnouts in '08 will tell for sure.