08

My journalism research piece was about YouTube, and the changing pace and evolution of online video, news, and search. Recently in the NY Times, an article tied this together. It seems that political candidates are makings stops at the Google headquarters consistently so that they can be seen at the forefront of technological innovation. This is important on a number of levels. First, Google is at the helm of culture. Executives there have a strong grasp on exactly what the public knows and doesn't, and what they are curious about and need to know. That said, the CEO of Google asks questions to candidates in an open forum. According to the article, candidates do not know in advance about the topics that they will be asked to cover. "With his Google visit, however, Senator Obama succeeded in drawing attention to his plans for using technology to make government more accessible and transparent with, for example, live Internet feeds of all executive branch department and agency meetings." I think this is a great idea. The article also mentions an important aspect of our culture. The video "I've Got a Crush On Obama" is a video of a superficially good-looking girl singing lyrics about the candidate. 4 million people have viewed it. As much as this scares me, I think that it's a good idea to examine cultural patterns like this, and be open to addressing why they exist. For example, YouTube has invented You Choose 08 for the population that is interested in using the new media to obtain information.