Oval Office opposition online...

Following on from my Obama's girl post in as much as it concerns the 'YouTube Election', Kevin Marsh (Editor of the BBC's College of Journalism) has some good points re the CNN debate that had questions proposed online via Youtube; in the debate the Democrat candidates (the Repulicans get their turn later) also played their own YouTube videos. However by all accounts it was a bit of a let down. Kevin ends with an important observation:

"'Big media’s' monopoly of communication in the democratic process is over. Good. But hopes for 'citizen media' need to be realistic; as does any assessment of the enduring merits of 'big media' … like its ability to pose and press the really tough questions; like its persistence in coming back to the unanswered questions; like its ability to field ego against ego, personality against personality … not the most attractive aspect of 'big media, but its most necessary given the politics that we have"

Maybe he's right but I think that there is more to come and apparently for a 'first attempt' it wasn't too bad. (Links and comments 'liveblogging' the YouTube debate etc can be followed through Kevin's post on BBC News The Editors Blog.)

Jeff Jarvis (Buzz Machine and PrezVid - YouTube Campaign 2008) was livebloggong and now Debating the Debate:

"I’m writing my Guardian column this week about the YouTube debate (no surprise)and as I thought about it more, I decided that it was a clash of media. Here’s my take and then I’ll show you the quite contrary take of a BBC editor."