Former Sen. George Allen, R-Virginia, knows firsthand the effect YouTube has had on politics.
That was then-Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen's controversial remark to a young campaign aide working for Allen's opponent, Democrat Jim Webb. The comment was caught on camera by the Webb aide, and was put on YouTube. It became a smash hit.
Allen was expected to cruise to re-election, but thanks in part to the YouTube video, Allen lost his seat by just a few thousand votes to Webb. His loss, along with the razor thin defeat of Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Montana -- who had his own damaging moments on YouTube -- helped swing control of the Senate to the Democrats.
Gotcha moments on YouTube, unauthorized campaign videos and hard-hitting debate questions from YouTube users are changing the political landscape. The YouTube "Macaca moment" represents a broad new challenge for candidates, but speaks to the age-old problem of how to control the message.
the internet is definitely going to affect the turnout for the 2008 elections... because now you can upload any video onto youtube and within 10 seconds there will be thousands of views.. this is going to be extremely crucial to peoples campaigns.. I really hope they dont do anything wrong infront of the camera because it may just cost them their election
1 comment:
Modern media has truly exposed many politicians' flaws and mistakes. Every action and decision that a politician now makes will be known to anyone who wants to know. I feel that this is ultimately a good thing. Thanks to the internet, it is almost impossible for politicians to "fake" their political ideology and stances as any and every "slip-up" will eventually make its way onto a site like Youtube. It seems that this new era of media might actually force politicians to be honest.
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