Presidential Campaigns on Youtube

College student James Kotecki tracks many of the political ads on YouTube and posts his critiques on the Web site.  With unofficial ads popping up, like the 1984-style ad mocking Hillary Clinton (which it turns out was produced by a Barack Obama supporter without Obama’s approval), candidates have lost some control over their message, Kotecki tells Morning Edition‘s Renee Montagne.

“It is true that in the age of user-generated content, candidates are going to have a lot less control over what goes up,” he says. “I think that’s worse for candidates who fear loss of control and aren’t good at projecting nonchalant off-the-cuff versions of themselves and really require a very controlled image to be effective.”  Kotecki, 21, says he hopes the success of YouTube will get more people in his age group interested in politics. See some of the 2008 Online Campaigns (npr.org).

[edit: corrected link]