It seems everywhere you turn there’s another video that someone wants you to view. As the election season continues to heat up, people seem to spending less time watching the “tube†and more time on YouTube. BusinessWeek recently released its list of the 25 most influential people on the web. Of course you had your usual suspects, like Google’s Eric Schmidt, Apple’s Steve Jobs, MySpace’s Rupert Murdoch, Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Wordpress’ Matt Mullenweg.
However, some of the more unlikely choices justify the importance that the Internet is playing in the election, including Electronic Retailer’s July 2006 cover subject Arianna Huffington and Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart. According to the BusinessWeek article:
In the days after Sarah Palin was nominated as the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, the web was rife with content focused on the Alaska governor. One of the most piquant—and widely viewed—video clips came from “The Daily Show.†In it, host Jon Stewart highlighted Palin doublespeak by conservative pundits. He showed, for instance, a clip of Bill O’Reilly calling the pregnancy of Palin’s teen daughter a private issue just months after the Fox News commentator had lambasted actress Jamie Lynn Spears’ parents for allowing their 16-year-old to get pregnant. “See, see what happens with the opinions on teen pregnancy is that they gestate over a period of a few months,†Stewart quipped. The video took off online, racking up 4.2 million views, a record for “The Daily Show’s†site.
I too, played a small part in this when I posted this same clip to my Facebook profile a few weeks back. NBC’s “Saturday Night Live†is seeing similar results as TVWeek recently reported that about 51 percent of viewers of the Tina Fey/Palin skits viewed them on the web and not on television.
Have you been viewing these videos on the web? Do you think television is losing its influence? Given last night’s Vice Presidential debate, one thing is for sure—it will be interesting to see what impact the polls will have on the election.
Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.
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