YouTube and Politics

Group Information

Members

Jorin Mantei

Sandra Makarewicz

Lauren Mongomery

Monica Madrilejo

Contacts

Jorin Mantei - jorin100@hotmail.com

Sandra Makarewicz - xox_sandra_xox@hotmail.com

Lauren Mongomery - peanut_mont@shaw.ca

Monica Madrilejo - nmadrilej@hotmail.com

Problem Statement

The Issue: Does YouTube pose as a positive or negative effect to political parties and voter apathy?

Introduction

Politicians have found an innovative way of either exposing the bad sides of their rivals, or promoting themselves. The video scenes are spread like wildfire on the web, using internet video-sharing sites such as YouTube.com. The spreading of these video scenes to hundreds of thousands of viewers can have a huge impact on political campaigns. It is well-known fact that a few seconds of a real-life video shot carries much more weight than a written newspaper report, but are the effects positive or negative?

Google Buys YouTube

YouTube, being a very successful company and website all over the world has brought an interest to Google and its investors. Because YouTube is known Worldwide, Google thought it would be in their best interest to buy it out, along with the 15 other companies it has already bought within the last year. Already spending around $130.5 million all the other small companies, Google decided to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion which was by far the most expensive purchase made by Google. Considering the fact that YouTube cost more than 15 different companies combined! Announced on Monday, October 09, 2008, the heading “Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion” was read by everyone that either had internet, newspaper, television, and any other form of media access. With this purchase, Google had hopes of improving its video traffic rapidly, as well as an increase in profitable marketing. Since more and more people use the internet more frequently than ever, YouTube being the popular site that it is viewed by many on a daily basis. Both Google and YouTube agree that with this partnership, they plan on improving media service worldwide since YouTube will continue to keep its brand. By the end of the year, the deal between the two companies is expected to be closed completely. The two companies have been getting along great and feel that this partnership has been their best idea yet! The companies still operate independently but partnered up only to build powerful media which helps organize the world’s information and make it accessible to everyone to make both company’s stronger. Google states that YouTube is only one of the many investments they plan to make in the video and media field. The entire world can benefit from this mutual partnership through making the overall experience of media and video more entertaining and comprehensive. Ever since the two companies’ have combined, many opportunities have been created and have been able to benefit the society as a whole. YouTube and Google, both being very popular and commonly used websites have both been growing very rapidly in the modern world. YouTube for example, has approximately 72 million visitors each month, and has 100 million videos viewed daily. This shows that YouTube has become one of the most popular websites used on a daily bases. Therefore the combination of Google and YouTube will only increase their popularity as well as improve the quality of their services and products. With the help of technology the two companies will provide newer features, as well as improvements in previous applications for visitors to the websites to use and view.

Progressive History

Who is YouTube?

Three Founders

YouTube is a video sharing website that became a worldwide internet institution and phenomenon. No one in the world does not know what YouTube is, or if they do not, they have been living under a rock. From Saturday Night Live to viral videos to increase exposure or just some random rant about the most unthinkable topic YouTube is the source. Pop Culture, Viral videos, Improvs, Rants, Video Blogs, and US Presidential election are all on YouTube. It has affected a whole generation to the point wherein this becomes a search engine and a primary source hence an institution. YouTube did expose entertainment but it also opened thought provoking ideas and culture awareness. It has become a source for criminal investigations, research tool, and an informative source. Because YouTube bombards us with countless videos we become informed viewers and much more critical and discriminating. This is the basic information about YouTube and its importance but how did this whole phenomena began?

YouTube was started by three guys trying to survive university and manage keeping a job, much like most of us. Chad Hurley studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. When he was about to graduate he learned about a developing company PayPal. This was a company, at that time, dedicated to let PDA users send money among themselves. Hurley was assigned to create a logo for PayPal. While he was working at PayPal he met Jawed Karim and Steve Chen. Karim attended University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign but left prior to graduation to work at PayPal. Even if Karim left the university he still continued his coursework and he eventually obtained his bachelor’s degree in computer science. He was the man behind the YouTube video sharing concept. Together with Karim, Steve Chen also went to University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Towards his graduation he started working at PayPal. In addition to working at PayPal, Chen was also an early employee at Facebook but left several months after to start YouTube. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer of YouTube. These three “amigos” founded one the biggest technology phenomena but like any great discovery it started with its own menial ways.

YouTube was born when the three founders (or amigos as we would call them) wanted to share videos from a dinner party with friends in San Francisco in January 2005. Before YouTube ever existed people had to send videos clips through email. We all remember how much our computers would lag or our emails rejected because of video bit sizes. The three amigos found this ineffective and frustrating. They decided to create some sort of design to make this task simpler.

YouTube was started as an angel funded enterprise. It used to be a project that existed in a makeshift garage office then in Nov 2005 venture firm Sequoia Capital invested three point five million dollars initially. In addition to Sequoia’s initial investment Roelof Botha, partner of the firm and a former Chief Financial Officer of PayPal, joined the YouTube Board of Directors. Due to this new position and control he help over YouTube, Sequoia invested another eight million dollars because of its growing popularity within the first months and its increasing potential rewards. YouTube started out as an idea due to life’s problems and as the idea became an action its potential greatness grew and grew.

The domain “YouTube.com” was activated on Feb 15, 2005. The website was gradually developed and fine tuned over the subsequent months. So test its effect and efficiency the public was offered a preview of the site on May 2005. This preview proved to be effective and by the summer of 2006, YouTube was already the fifth most popular website, out placing MySpace’s growth rate. Because of its growing popularity problems arise. YouTube became the public’s source of entertainment and this posed a threat to media moguls and it borderlines copyright infringement. YouTube then made agreements with NBC and several other stations establishing a relationship wherein the media mogul will use YouTube as production companies got in on the bandwagon. They made an agreement with YouTube, YouTube will get its music videos if YouTube provides exposure and to let them have their own channel in the website. Because YouTube’s new found influence and control, to the point wherein it poses a threat to normal forms of entertainment proves that YouTube is influential and growing in power.

October 9, 2006 was the day Google and YouTube announced about the Google’s plan to buy and YouTube agreed. The purchase agreement came up when media companies wanted to escape the threats of infringement lawsuits. The deal closed on November 13th and YouTube was Google’s second largest acquisition.

YouTube still runs independently today, with its co-founders and sixty-seven employees working within the company.

YouTube and Applications

Varieties of Applications

There are many ways YouTube can be viewed and used other than through the internet and the use of computers or lab tops. Besides this, the most common applications used are mobile phones. On a daily basis, YouTube videos are uploaded on cell phones along with music, photos, and files making it that much easier and convenient for people to use YouTube and the Internet. YouTube, being a video-sharing service is not only used for entertainment but also provides users to be able to explore video production as professionals, aspiring producers, journalists, hobbyists, or directors. Since YouTube is becoming easier to use and can be viewed on many applications, especially mobile phones, this helps certain individuals broaden and expand their careers or simply allows them to post and let others view personal recordings, footage of certain events, animations, music videos, and anything else that comes to mind. Because so many people are able to view all these videos, those who upload them are able to receive responses, views, and opinions about certain videos. Blog applications are now available for viewers to comment and share their thoughts for others to see. This creates many benefits for those who use YouTube to share their videos for the world to see. It not only permits these individuals to express themselves in certain ways, but can also help start a career for some and creates opportunities that would have never been discovered otherwise. Now, more than ever people use the internet for many reasons, and YouTube becomes part of their daily routine. Being able to view videos almost anywhere and everywhere, notifies people what’s happening in the world. Marketers are able to rely on narrowcasting to reach their target market within the population. Media is a very powerful form of expression and convinces people what is right, wrong, and helps advertize and commercialize certain products and services. Beside cell phones, many apple applications also make YouTube, as well as the internet available to users. The itouch for example, is simply a music/mp3 player but also allows you to browse the internet and view YouTube videos no matter where you are as long as you have internet connection. This has also making it much easier to reach a certain audience for those who want their videos viewed. Because viewing video is so much easier now, people are also able to use YouTube for fun and for simple entertainment without having to log onto a computer. Applications that allow the use of YouTube are making it that much easier and convenient for users of YouTube and the internet

Statistical Representation

Total videos uploaded as of March 17th 2008: 78.3 Million
Videos uploaded per day: over 200,000

YouTube by Category:

Music: 19.8%
Entertainment: 19.0%
People & Blogs: 14.2%
Comedy: 13.4%
Sports: 6.9%
Education: 6.0%
Autos: 5.2%
Film: 4.7%
HowTo: 2.6%
News: 2.6%
Pets: 2.2%
Science: 2.2%
Travel: 1.3%
Average Video Length: 2 minutes 46.17 seconds
Time it would take to view all of the material on YouTube (as of March 17th 2008): 412.3 years
Average Age of Uploader: 26.57
Unambiguously User-Generated (amateur): 80.3%
Professional: 14.7%
Commercial Content Uploaded as percentage of Total Uploads: 4.7%
Blogs Uploaded as percentage of Total Uploads: 4.7%
Percentage of videos that are probably in violation of copyright: 12%
YouTube hosts over six million videos, growing at about 20 percent every month.
The videos take up 45 terabytes of storage — about 5,000 home computers’ worth.
The total time spent watching YouTube videos since it started last year is 9,305 years!
The content requires several million dollars’ worth of bandwidth a month to transmit.
The most popular items get an especially large percentage of the traffic.
The words “dance,” “love,” “music” and “girl” are all exceedingly popular in video titles.

Youtube-Insight-video-metrics-age-ranges-Robin-Good.gif

Effects and Examples

Reality:

Candidates and voters now speak to each other through video. At their best, campaigns use YouTube not as a shrunken TV screen through which to distribute their soundbites, but as a window through which to have a dialogue with the American people. YouTube's leveling effect is this: anyone can upload a video with their political message, and the best content rises to the top through community view counts, rankings, linkages, and embeds. Any voter with a video camera and access to the Internet has the opportunity to be seen and heard.

Positive:

Obama made a great leap in political campaigns by using the internet as a viable tool for his political campaign. On his website you can watch “Obama TV”, see where Obama stands on issues (such as Civil Rights), you can even read Obama’s blog. Under the Media section Obama even has a You Tube link , so that you can watch his speeches. Obama has many videos on his website, such as “four days in Denver” which has been viewed 775,073 times, “President Elect-Barack Obama on election night” which has been viewed 625,171. The Barack Obama Website is really an amazing tool for a presidential election, you can find out everything you would need to know about a presidential candidate. You can learn all about his life from the time he was a child to his political career. On You Tube you can even find videos of Barack on Ellen, and Lettermen. So not only is he reaching people through the shows and through you tube but also pulling viewers in through you tube. Barack’s videos are getting seen by a lot of people, and the election videos are a really great way to get attention from people all over the world. Barack Obama made a huge leap in planning a presidential campaign by using you tube as a means of contacting more people. Many young people use you tube, and it was a great way to get young people involved in the political process, and it was a way to not only get young people to look into the campaign but to also convince them to get out an vote.

Negative:

Despite the numerous positive impacts YouTube promotes, it also increases the vulnerability of other parties. In desperate measures, people have the ability to make clips or images of rival parties in order to make them look worse, or to make crude comments about them. The latest political victim was Republican senator George Allen of Virginia who was caught on camera making a derogatory remark to an African-American tracker sent by his rival, James Webb. Thousands of people have already seen the video where Allen points to the tracker and calls him a macaca, an African word for monkey and often used as a racial insult against people of darker color. The incident boosted Allen’s campaign substantially and has already caught the interest of Democratic activists who hope to make use of the video scene in other campaigns.

Currently

2008

Like any other election political candidates for the 2008 U.S Presidential Election used YouTube as a major source for advertising campaigns. Voters could see candidate statements and make videos developing views and opinions based on presidential candidates. Third Party presidential candidates have also made extensive use of YouTube. The U.S. media has often commented that YouTube played a significant role in the 2006 defeat of Republican Senator George Allen due to a video clip of him making allegedly racist remarks that was continuously replayed by YouTube viewers during the campaign. Political commentators make videos on YouTube critiquing a presidential candidate's YouTube videos, or simply using YouTube as a medium to get their opinions heard.

Conclusion

Because YouTube is so accessible on the internet, it’s made itself vulnerable to millions of world wide viewers and users. From this huge variety and amount of videos it is virtually impossible to police and remove all videos that that could pose a threat voters or leaders of political parties. As positive as YouTube seems in getting everyone involved to cure voter apathy, the negative effects outweigh the good, because the truth about people aren’t really shown. Our questions allowed us to see the amounts of people using the program, and to see how it could benefit or harm both sides of the ideas. Should YouTube hope to be used as a political means of getting there people involved in certain parties and to set an end to voter apathy they will need to set up ways to monitor the safety of the people exposing themselves in those parties and not have the fear of someone else posting lies about them in order to maintain a higher political status. YouTube needs to not only recognize the harmful content, but impose greater consequences for users in violation.