Online debates: the future of politics?

The latest frenzy in America has been caused by the online debate by the presidential candidates for the 2008 elections. Experts question is this the future for political news reporting?

In a move that has never taken place before, American citizens were invited to post questions to the candidates for the presidency on YouTube, in a shared CNN-YouTube collaboration. From nearly 3000 entries a few dozen questions were chosen to be put to the candidates. This debate was then broadcast on air and online, with millions tuning in to watch what was heralded as a turning point in the life of US politics, and in political news reporting in general. This has led supporters to argue that this medium of political news reporting will be more likely to get people who wouldn’t normally be interested in politics involved in matters that affect their country, by using a format that they use on a regular basis.

However the debate did cause some disquiet amongst the supporters of YouTube as CNN chose which questions would be used. Critics claim that this is not in keeping with the philosophy of YouTube in which viewers decide which videos are given most prominence by being the ones that are most-watched. Whether the format chosen was in keeping with video-sharing protocols or not, experts are now unconvinced that this move was as ground-breaking as people are making out. These commentators argue that these debates are not actually all that politically significant, but are being portrayed as such due to the hype surrounding them. Only time will tell if online news reporting is set to become a pivotal factor on the political world scene, although 15% of US citizens already say that they rely solely on the internet for their political news reporting, and this looks only set to rise in the future.

Sources:

Times Online

BBC News