I have a question for you, YouTube version

The first debate carried out directly through the new online social media has been called the “YouTube election” and has been led by all those who want to become the candidate for the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States in the next elections, to be held in 2008.

It was Internet users (and potential voters) who asked the Democratic candidates through a live broadcast televised by CNN and YouTube, which allowed, as all analysts agree, questions that were raised in a debate traditional may not have been produced. However, other experts consider that the questions were quite predictable, when dealing with topics such as homosexual marriage, global warming, health or the Iraq war. So where is the difference? Well, in the opinion of Julie Barko Germany, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University, in the fact that when anonymous citizens pose these types of questions, they do so “because they want a real answer” .

The problem, according to this analyst, was that the candidates spent more time debating between themselves and the moderator than trying to connect directly with the people who asked their questions through videos on YouTube. “A great effort was made, but it would have been better to have more dialogue and follow-up questions from netizens through YouTube,” he says.

Other experts regret that CNN issued non-serious questions, such as that of a man who, singing, asked to be forgiven a parking ticket or that of another citizen who, disguised as a snowman, questioned about global warming. According to Rod Carveth, a communication professor at Marywood University, it is the fact that CNN is a traditional media outlet that has limited all the possibilities that the new social media allows. “The debate was not as revolutionary as it could have been because it was filtered through a traditional medium,” he says.

However, this debate has allowed us to learn about some of the issues that matter most at street level in the United States, since most of the questions were focused on national and day-to-day issues. “In previous debates, most of the questions focused on the war in Iraq, but it is clear that citizens are also concerned about issues such as health or gay rights,” confirms Carveth.

For History, however, the interest shown in these new formulas of political discussion will remain. Not surprisingly, YouTube collected more than 3,000 videos in the form of questions that Americans wanted to ask politicians who want to become the Democratic candidate in the next presidential election in the United States.

In any case, the fact that some of these politicians have uploaded videos to this type of portals about their candidacy and that they have submitted to this debate shows that they are aware of the importance of the concept of Web 2.0 and that they are no longer valid. traditional methods of winning votes. For some experts, this adaptation of the electoral campaigns is similar to the one that took place in 1932 when some campaign events began to be broadcast live.

Finally, it should be noted that the candidates for the Republican party will also be submitted to a debate on YouTube next September.