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May 07, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Capitol Hill's Coming Video Revolution
Reprinted from the May 2 PM Edition of Technology Daily
By Heather Greenfield
By the end of this year, most members of Congress will be using video-sharing sites like YouTube in some way, according to Karina Newton, the director of new media for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
She spoke at a New Politics Institute panel discussion Wednesday designed to give advice on how liberal politicians can make better use of Internet video.
Pelosi, D-Calif., now has 500 video postings on YouTube. She and Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., opened accounts a day apart nearly a year ago, but Kingston has not posted any videos in five months. Newton said the challenge for lawmakers is deciding what videos will be valuable, and that sometimes is surprising.
She noted recent video examples of a General Services Administration misconduct hearing; Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., bickering on the floor with a Republican colleague over executive compensation; and a moment of silence requested by Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., for troops killed from his former unit. The GSA hearing had 100,000 views, and the moment of silence, posted yesterday, has been seen about 12,000 times.
Newton said the videos can be used for constituent communications, documenting events, advancing priorities like Pelosi's innovation agenda, and rapid response, which she described as "framing an issue before FOX or MSNBC does."
She mentioned video excerpts yesterday of Democratic floor speeches on the anniversary of President Bush celebrating victory in Iraq in 2003 as an example. Newton posted the video on Pelosi's blog, The Gavel, under a benign headline referring to Democrats on the floor. Daily Kos, a liberal blog, also posted the video under an edgier headline, "Quagmire Accomplished Day."
While morning floor speeches often are delivered to a largely empty chamber, the excerpts already have been seen 100,000 times.
In response to a question about who is watching all the videos, Dan Manatt, founder of PoliticsTV.com, said, "the key group other than activists and supporters is the media."
"YouTube has become a video PR newswire," Manatt said.
Jeff Weingarten, president of Interface Media Group, noted that unlike with television, the video "lives on forever." The content remains posted, whereas candidates or other people with messages previously needed advertising dollars to make that happen.
Panelists gave advice on the importance of "tagging" Web video with effective keywords so the material can be found amid an overload of postings. They also talked about ways to help others spread video.
Manatt said to get "as many friends as possible to rank it and link to it to get it to bubble up." Newton added that bloggers have been the best resource for spreading video.
Phil de Vellis, who produced a popular video mash-up of a 1984 Apple Inc. advertisement with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking to drones, was asked about the copyright dangers he faced with that and his mash-up called "The Bank," which was a spoof of the TV show "The Office." He said political speech is strongly protected.
"I think both those videos were close to the line but on the right side of the line," de Vellis said.
Posted by Danny | 10:06 AM
