Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: YouTube debate gives candidates new voice
By Jennifer Larino
Central Florida Future (U. Central Florida)
07/30/2007

(U-WIRE) OVIEDO, Fla. — Presidential candidates have found the secret to pulling the youth vote: YouTube. Or at least they think they have.

No longer just a home for videos of skateboarding dogs or German techno dance, YouTube has become a forum for politics in the latest presidential debates.

Hosted by Anderson Cooper, the YouTube Democratic debate was broadcast nationally July 23 on CNN. As they have for years, the candidates lined up behind podiums to answer questions intended to test their political stances. This time, however, there was YouTube.

Citizens from all over the country were able to submit a video of themselves asking one question for the candidates to the YouTube account set up by CNN. The crop of questions wasn't too bad; most were legitimate and followed similar routes of prior debates, such as the Iraq war and gay marriage. The only difference was that Joe Schmo was speaking to the candidates on a large screen next to a prominent YouTube logo.

As though they just discovered what YouTube was, CNN and other political critics marked the debate as groundbreaking and a younger, hipper way to present political debates. It was also heralded as a solution to low voting rates among young voters.

In the 2004 election, the voting rate for registered voters between the ages of 18-24 was 47 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. This age range has consistently proven itself to be ineffectual during voting.

Although the debate ran smoothly and valid questions were asked, I feel the latest appeal to reach young voters through YouTube has gotten more laughs than praise.

The Daily Show's John Stewart mocked CNN's lack of knowledge on how to use the full-screen mode provided by YouTube on the projection screen.

My friends laugh at some of the "unique" deliveries of debate questions. One man asked the candidates if America's babies were safe, then pulled out an automatic weapon, his baby.

But I don't think we're giving the YouTube debate credit for the revolutionary event it really is. As long as there have been elections, candidates have grasped at technology to promote their candidacy and reach out to younger generations. Franklin Delano Roosevelt captured the minds of many through his powerful radio campaign speeches. Dwight D. Eisenhower used the new invention of the television to promote himself. His campaign used boisterous, animated political ads.

Presidential candidates for the past century have used every media outlet available to get their message to the people, and now they've turned to the Internet. Not just with e-mail and campaign Web sites, but with video forums and social networking sites.

The YouTube debate just might be the beginning of a new era in political strategy.

Let's just hope that it doesn't lead to a superficial future.

The fact is that no president should win office hiding behind their use of the media alone.

The ways candidates reach voters may have changed, but voters should focus on ideas rather than presentation.

The ideas, the leadership, the simple likability of a candidate are what win an election, and that can't be faked, even through a TV screen or Internet video.

Let candidates answer questions over YouTube and blog about their campaign on their MySpace page. Perhaps some young people will take the gesture as a bond with their generation?

The presidential candidate who wins the young vote, or any vote for that matter, should be the one who appeals genuinely to the public. That person needs to move beyond the media and beyond the debates and put his or her ideas on the line for everyone to see and discuss.

It is a never-ending battle faced by politicians as the methods of making themselves known are always changing, and politicians have no choice but to change as well.

How they will do that is perhaps more a creative and clever venture than Internet debate or MySpace pages and will most definitely turn the heads of the newest generation of voters.

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