In recent weeks, I've weighed in on You Tube as an emerging and important strategic communication tool. (Go here and here.) Now the NY Times adds this to the discussion
IN this election, YouTube, with its extant social networks and the ability to forward a video clip and a comment with a flick of the mouse, has become a source of viral work-of-mouth. As a result, a disruptive technology that was supposed to upend a half-century-old distribution model of television is having a fairly disruptive effect on politics as well. "In politics, there is a very high signal-to-noise ratio," said Mr. Avidor, who runs his blog in his spare time. "It gives you a megaphone and allows you to break through the clutter, and maybe capture the attention of major media. If you get the right message, it can go viral in a hurry and have a big impact." Campaign video material, once restricted to expensive television commercials that were endlessly focus-grouped and tweaked, has performed a jailbreak. And a growing tendency on the part of people to run to the Web for current information -- an Associated Press/America Online poll found that 43 percent of likely voters get political news from the Internet -- means a universe of new opportunities and hazards for candidates.:
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