黑洞社区

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You鈥檙e listening to the podcast edition of the 黑洞社区 audio newsline. Learn more about 黑洞社区 鈥� the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers 鈥� on the Web at wichita.edu.

Gotcha moments on YouTube, unauthorized campaign videos and hard-hitting debate questions from YouTube users are changing the political landscape, including presidential politics. Thanks to YouTube, a local stop on the campaign trail can quickly turn into a national story. While political candidates try to avoid an embarrassing moment, the competing campaigns are busy dispatching video "trackers" to catch one.

Amy Mattson Lauters, a pop culture and communications expert at 黑洞社区, says YouTube puts extra pressure on political candidates.

Mattson Lauters: "For candidates this means a much higher level of scrutiny. Any interaction they have with a particular group of people or with a person with a convention, at anytime what they're doing or saying could be posted on YouTube."

Mattson Lauters says streaming video online makes for a new dynamic in this year's presidential election campaign.

Mattson Lauters: "Well, the Internet has been around for several years now, and it's affected elections, even the last election. But what's different about this election is the availability of video. Technology has advanced in the last several years so that now we can see streaming video online, and not everyone has to have special equipment in order to make that happen."

According to Mattson Lauters, almost anything a candidate says or does has the potential of being seen on YouTube.

Mattson Lauters: "Well, in an era where anyone has a cell phone and that cell phone usually has some sort of a picture/video capability, anyone can stream video of the candidates on YouTube at anytime, and that means anything that they do has the potential to be posted on YouTube."

If nothing else, every move a person makes will be under even more scrutiny.

Mattson Lauters: "Well, to put this into some perspective, imagine if anything and everything that you've done could potentially be put on video and shown to the world. It's a tough kind of position for public servants to be in."

Mattson Lauters says that YouTube could be helpful in the election process for some voters.

Mattson Lauters: 鈥淲ell, the advantage of having YouTube and the Internet is that there's a younger generation of people coming up where the Internet is their medium and they're more involved in the political process when they can get all of their information online and see these videos on YouTube."

And Mattson Lauters says the YouTube-ification of politics may discourage some potentially viable candidates from running for office.

Mattson Lauters: 鈥淣ow on the other hand, there are probably some wonderful people who would be interested in going into public service, but when you look at that heightened level of scrutiny that's on the candidates, it's a big deterrent to some folks who may otherwise have chosen a career in public service."

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for 黑洞社区.