Can’t get enough speechifying from politicians on C-SPAN? Now you can catch them on YouTube. Many elected representatives in Congress already have their own YouTube channels, but YouTube has just launched two central hubs to make it easier to find videos from your Senator or Congressman.
These channels are pretty spare right now, but they tend to consist of actual speeches on the House or Senate floor (snooze), updates on upcoming legislation, or a call to action to get constituents to help support a particular bill (for instance, see Nevada Senator John Ensign’s video below on making the Internet tax ban permanent).
Most of these videos have very low view counts, less than 500 each. Nobody was watching these videos before. Putting them altogether in their own channel is not going to make them more popular. If Senators and Congressman want to use YouTube as a direct channel to the electorate, that’s great. But can someone teach these folks a little about Web video production values? They come across as little more than commercials.
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Do most people actually care?
Finally, they are catching on and realizing the power of the tube.
This would be worthwhile if they could do it right. But even Obama’s VLOG ChangeDotGov on YT is losing viewership, I think primarily because it’s no longer intimate. The policy videos are pretty good with staff and those have real insight into how the transition is going.
But the political teleprompted speeches lack a sense of natural connection and presence we see with a good Vlog.
Or maybe what they really need is a wonderbra adorned Russian girl reading the speeches and calling their constituents “my honies.”
As Steven’s already mentioned : do most people actually care ?
Yeah so your senator’s on you tube and now you can watch his ugly mug on the internet as well as on the television.
Hurray!
dxtr
http://stuckinframes.blogspot.com
Wasting bandwidth.
If one search is equivalent to 7g of carbon, these videos are like driving SUVs. Stop killing earth.
Considering John Ensign is my senator, yes. Thanks for making it easy, Erick.
(Also pictured: Harry Reid, who delusionally believes he is “independent, like Nevada”)
I really don’t care much, only becuase I expect them to be on there best behavior anyway. But part of me wants to know these guys in office better. Maybe a reality show on a Senator would be good idea instead.
….no - but I would like to see Governor Trollop on there