America’s fiscal crisis is fueling activism in cities and town across America where Tea Party rallies shine the light on our national debt and out-of-control government spending. But there’s also a revolution happening online, particularly with web videos that tell the story of an economically challenged country.
Debt, spending and taxes don’t exactly translate into blockbusters. Over the course of the past couple weeks, however, web videos on each subject have illustrated just how significant those issues are for engaged citizens.
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Today YouTube announced the official launch of YouTube DIRECT, a tool that allows organizations to collect, moderate and then display videos from users directly on their organization’s web site or an associated YouTube channel. The stated intention of the tool is to allow news organizations to develop an array of user-generated stringers who can upload video reports and commentary to a news web site while maintaining the news site’s editorial control. (At the time of writing it was not 100% clear whether the tool was limited to official news services only – let’s hope not).
But let’s think outside of the box here. Why limit this to news organizations? Could you image what a forward thinking non-profit or advocacy group could do with this kind of technology? (more…)
Posted by: Alan Rosenblatt
I didn’t know I was running for president until I saw this new video from AARP. The truth is, AARP is launching a new election campaign that lets you put anyone’s name into their video as the candidate for president. Why? Because this election is all about YOU.
AARP’s new campaign is really about connecting with voters. The very essence of this video campaign is to give the people a chance to insert themselves into the message, and then insert their friends. Very personal touch, indeed.
While not the first to do something like this (Job Jab lets you put your face on an animated character), this light-hearted campaign really gets to the heart of electoral politics–YOU.
Want to send the ad to your friends with their name in it? Click here and have some fun.
A few weeks ago Billy Hallowell of VoterWatch pitched me on the idea of annotating video of the presidential debates. Due to a bunch of distractions at work, I missed the first two presidential contests and the VP debate. But this morning I fully annotated the third debate with commentary and links from The Heritage Foundation.
By embarking on the project — and possibly continuing it with congressional video — I hoped to provide an important service to our readers who want more than sound bites from the candidates. VoterWatch allows you to do just that by blogging within video coverage.
The experience was rather enjoyable. After watching last night’s “Saturday Night Live” skit with Fred Armisen and Darrell Hammond, I even had a few laughs at the real Barack Obama and John McCain.
I’m cross-posting today to a blog I wrote the other day for Media Future Now about mainstream radio using streaming video. (As if that makes any kind of sense.)
What amazed me is the power of interactivity actually realized by video coverage of the Democratic and Republic National Conventions last month. I’ll simply refer for the immediate moment to coverage of KCRW radio in Santa Monica, reported on by Anne Eisenberg last week in the New York Times. Eisenberg’s story in the Times ogled at 124,000 views of 67 convention clips shot by KCRW staffers the Democratic Convention last month in Denver. (more…)
