YouTube’s new parent company Google may be having a difficult time landing deals with major media companies, but YouTube is certainly becoming the prime channel for political videos on the web. Two days ago Google officially announced the launch of YouTube’s new political vlog, Citizentube.
Although seemingly intended to showcase local citizen-made videos, the site appears to currently serve as a central location for all the political videos that appear on YouTube. Users can sign up for subscriptions to various “channels” on Citizentube, getting feeds of various candidates’ videos, along with feeds of popular political video sites.
But, as BBC News points out, YouTube’s growing role in politics is not limited to the U.S. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched a Labor Party channel on YouTube. In a video, Blair explains that the channel is designed to bring the message to citizens “unmediated.”
Despite the rush by top leaders to embrace the Internet and web video, a lot of the innovative efforts appear to be one-way messaging. Top blogger and political observer Jeff Jarvis thinks the candidates can do a better job of making their web presences truly interactive. Although some candidates actively encourage feedback and questions, so far these appeals have received little response.
“On his web site, John McCain asked people to send in questions via YouTube,” he said. “But the last time I looked, no-one had.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:42 AM|Comments(0)
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