This is US President-elect Barack Obama’s first YouTube address. And this what Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong should be doing too – appearing on YouTube videos. He speaks well, looks good on TV and is as tech-savvy as Obama. Remember the video he took with his Nokia phone in the middle of his speech during the National Day Rally in August?
It’s not without reason a great communicator like Obama is using YouTube. He is reaching viewers directly, who can see him when they want to. It’s more personal than a television interview or a newspaper report.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong should also be on YouTube. People want to hear their thoughts and ideas, especially in these uncertain times when Singapore is caught in a global economic slowdown. The leaders can explain the situation and provide inspiration to the people.
That’s why US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt started broadcasting his fireside chats to the nation during the Depression in the 1930s.
These YouTube videos carry the intimacy of US presidential fireside chats one step further. Viewers can see them on their personal computers when they want. The videos can also be saved on YouTube and other social sites. So they can be both personal and viral.
Opposition figures could also use YouTube, which has servers based outside Singapore.
However, PM Lee, MM Lee and SM Goh may have the advantage of experience, as veterans of countless broadcasts. I suspect all three will come across very well on YouTube.
Some may say videos like this encourage the cult of personality. But the media already reports every speech by Singapore’s leaders. If they go on YouTube, the only difference will be they will be bypassing the traditional media.
The Guardian reports:
It is remarkable how swiftly the internet has changed politics, even before the tech-friendly Obama.
Now YouTube can make or break politicians. Online forums are commonplace and every politician must raise money on the web. The revolution began in 2004, with Howard Dean's doomed run for the Democratic nomination. The former Vermont governor discovered the power of internet fundraising and it allowed him to emerge from nowhere to frontrunner. Though his candidacy failed, it left a base of activists, dubbed the 'netroots', who mostly flocked to Obama as the 2008 race unfolded. Obama's campaign used them widely, creating a disciplined campaign that out-fought and out-thought John McCain.
'It wouldn't be overstating things to say that, if it wasn't for the web, we'd be inaugurating a different 44th President on 20 January,' said Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, the online newspaper.
Obama's grateful embrace of the netroots happened in part because he appears tech-savvy himself. Some have dubbed him the first Blackberry President, as he can often be seen checking his mobile email device as soon as he gets off a plane. He is an iPod-tuned, Facebook-friendly, Twittering politician who fits right into the digital age and makes other leaders look analogue. He can communicate directly with the public via profiles on Facebook and MySpace, photographs on Flickr, videos on YouTube, text message feeds on Twitter and meetings on his own social network myBarackObama.com. 'I must say how excited we all have been to elect a President who at least carries a mobile device,' said Chris Sacca, an internet start-up investor.
Obama's embrace of new ways of communicating – comparable to John F. Kennedy's mastery of the relatively new medium of television – means he can bypass the traditional political media in a way no other President can have dreamt of. It will put the Washington media establishment in the unusual position of being outsiders on a relationship between a President and his public. 'The decimation of mainstream media means that he and his direct-communications team will be able to work around the wreckage of the news business,' wrote Andrew Keen, a web entrepreneur.
Yet such power and accessibility may have a downside. The internet is an unruly place and his army of 3.1 million activists are likely to have 3.1 million different opinions on some matters. They will not be shy in vocalising them, nor will they be easy to control. If Obama does not move quickly on campaign promises or if he backtracks on certain issues, his supporters will be able to hold him to account, creating potential embarrassments ahead. Such are the pitfalls of what is essentially a brave new world when it comes to practising 21st-century politics.
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