Ziwen Liu’s course blog for the MCDM

Viral Video:

•         A viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or Instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in nature and include televised comedy sketches such as Saturday Night Live’s Lazy Sunday and Dick in a Box; amateur video clips like Star Wars Kid, the Numa Numa videos, The Dancing Cadet, The Evolution of Dance, the “Benny Lava” video; and web-only productions such asI Got a Crush on Obama. Some “eyewitness” events have also been caught on video and have “gone viral,” including the Battle at Kruger .

•         With the proliferation of camera phones, many videos are being shot by amateurs on these devices. The availability of cheap video editing and publishing tools allows video shot on mobile phones to be edited and distributed virally both on the web by email or website, and between phones by Bluetooth or MMS. These consumer-shot videos are typically non-commercial videos intended for viewing by friends or family.

Viral Video in the 2008 campaign

•         Introduction: With millions of viewers, You Tube, Current TV and other on-line video services are proving to be a way around the bias of mainstream news and a direct route to voters, donors and campaign workers.

•         The video is spreading so widely due to four factors:

1     It makes very creative use of technology, in a way most people haven’t seen before.

2     It’s funny.

3     People feel they’re doing a good deed in passing it on.

4         A sense of participation.

Statistics: 

 More than 85 million people have watched Barack Obama on You Tube and 22 million have watched John McCain videos—all of them include a “tell-a-friend” link.

       According to Moveon.org, a certain viral video has already been emailed 15 million times before the election day, and is going out 30 more times per second.

•         John Mccain’s profile in Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/johnmccain

•         Barrack Obama’s profile in Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/barrackobama

•         Examples:

Ten most viral videos in the 2008 campaign

Here is the link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15182.html

•         Case Study 1:

The YouTube debates

       Back when Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John Edwards and Mike Huckabee still had a chance to win the presidency, CNN hosted a debate in which Republican and Democratic presidential candidates responded to questions sent over the Web and broadcast through YouTube. The so-called “YouTube debates” drew from more than 2,000 videos posted online, and for the first time gave voters from across the country direct access to the people running for the nation’s highest office. As with anything related to the Internet and politics, however, the debate was not without controversy. Specifically, some viewers were displeased that CNN picked the questions that would be aired, while other partisans were upset that people from opposing parties were allowed to ask questions to their party’s candidates.

•         Case Study 2:

Obama’s adventures with viral videos

       “YouTube moments” have been a staple of American politics since 2006, when former Senator George Allen was recorded referring to a volunteer for the rival Jim Webb campaign as “macaca.” This year, Barack Obama had two major viral videos directly impact his campaign, one for good and one for bad. In the former case, an enthusiastic supporter calling herself “ObamaGirl” made a series of hilariously over-the-top videos proclaiming her undying crush to her favorite junior senator from Illinois. In the latter case, Obama was hurt by a viral video of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, shouting “God damn America!” during one of his sermons. What the YouTube can giveth, the YouTube can also taketh away.

Notable viral video sites:

Albino Blacksheep  Collegehumor.com

Funny or Die  Google Video JibJab 

Kewego LiveLeak Metacafe

Newgrounds.com  Pandora tv  YouTube

•         Conclusions:

       Viral Video has played a particularly prominent role in the 2008 elections — and it isn’t just the typical silliness over whether a candidate really claimed to have invented a key piece of it. In this regard, we dare to predict that the recipe to win in an presidential election in the future will be for candidates to divert their attentions from TV to Youtube fighting for each space of it.