Viral Videos and the Election

Within hours of last night’s debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, people were posting responses on YouTube, including musical remixes of responses and comments by a chipmunk. If the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates marked the arrival of television as a medium, 2008 is "the YouTube election."

For the first time, punditry and campaign ads are not beamed to us during prime time, but generated by anyone with editing software, an opinion, and some time on their hands. The proliferation of viral political videos may not elevate civil discourse, but does signal a new form of political involvement and a new player on the scene that voters and candidates are watching.

Chuck Tryon is assistant professor of film and media studies at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. He’s written about the loose category he calls "prezvids," and he’ll be leading a panel discussion on viral videos and the election at the FlowTV conference in Austin, Tex., this weekend.