YouTube-ization

YouTube-ization. YouTube + politics make for a potent combination, and The New York Times has a timely article on this subject. It starts with Senator Allen's snafu involving a desi student in Virginia.

"Last week, Senator George Allen, the Virginia Republican, was caught on tape at a campaign event twice calling a college student of Indian descent a "macaca," an obscure racial slur.

The student, working for the opposing campaign, taped the comments, and the video quickly appeared on YouTube, where it rocketed to the top of the site's most-viewed list. It then bounced from the Web to the front page of The Washington Post to cable and network television news shows. Despite two public apologies by Senator Allen, and his aides' quick explanations for how the strange word tumbled out, political analysts rushed to downgrade Mr. Allen's stock as a leading contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination."

It was not just Senator Allen, but YouTube has also impacted Senator Liberman's recent elections in Connecticut. He lost the elections. It appears that Senator Liberman's incumbent advantage did not help him win this election.

The article correctly points out that YouTube might play a signicant role in American politics, especially in the upcoming elections and campaign trails. I suspect we might have many YouTube whistle stops this time around, or maybe we should call them YouTube moments (with due apologies to Kodak). Who knows. Later this year, many states will hold their mid-term elections, and the next one after that is the election for a new President.

There are further implications of videosharing websites like YouTube on elections and journatlists. The article underscores this fact:

"Now, as the campaign trail turns into a 24-hour live set, members of the press corps may find themselves starring on YouTube."

But, then in the same breath the article argues, "Then again, YouTube's impact on politics may be exaggerated. For one, the site's users are generally young and not highly engaged politically."

Rollingtone.com labels this as the first YouTube election and writes, "it's clear that YouTube is already changing the game. And politicians of all stripes had better watch out."

It might be too early to predict whether these young users will elect to stay out of politics. They might surprise us all by becoming politically engaged. Remember the last elections, where Paris Hilton and others did their bit and asked us to vote? "It is hot," this YouTube thing. What remains to be seen is if this will become a "hot button" issue for some candidates in 2007.We now have a new word in our lexicon;YouTube-ization. I propose a new verb:YouTubed. Usage: Have you been YouTubed? or, Oh, did you see that K.Johar has been YouTubed?

The YouTube link of Senator Allen and his comments that became the talk of the nation.