YouTube vs. Politics

Politicians use many different platforms in order to make their appearance during the elections. Some use actual platforms where they stand to address the crowd, others use television and radio advertisements to reach the mindless masses, and of recent some are using the internet, and in particular YouTube, in order to send their message about the gains of them being voted for as president and of their candidacy. The potential problem with using online mediums such as YouTube to convey ideas is the negative effects of produsage such as spoofs, satire and parody, which could potentially destroy a campaign. An example of the positive effects of YouTube would be the “Obama Girl” video which has been seen around YouTube since Barack Obama started running for president. This video which was made by supporters of Barack Obama, Ben Relles and Leah Kauffman along with Amber Lee Ettinger who played 'Obama Girl', initiated a strong increase in his popularity particularly with the under 30 voters who are those most likely to have seen and been influenced by this saucy and humorous video.
Saturday Night Live is a major American TV show which often does satire and parodies of celebrities and other major news makers, and the runners in the presidential campaign were not excluded from this. Another satirical view of the voting system was shown on The Simpsons where Homer Simpson attempted to vote for Barack Obama using a rigged electronic voting machine which turned all votes for Barack Obama into ones for John McCain and recorded multiple votes for the one voter. While these parodies and satirical segments are unlikely to change the opinion of a voter of average or higher intelligence, they are likely to influence those who are either below average intelligence or totally undecided about the vote.
Outside of the elections held in the United States, there have been numerous produsage videos featuring the current Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. Many of these are incredibly child-like such as over-riding most of his public address speeches with fart sounds and inserting laugh tracks. However there have also been more correctly done ones such as the ones performed by Rove and his team called Kevin Rudd, P.M, where video clips from his weeks dealings were turned into a short video detailing his life as if he was a spy. These properly done parodies are a lot more effective than those done poorly, though are often done for differing reasons, whether it be to detract from the fame or likeability of the person in question, or to create entertainment for the masses which portray them in a positive yet humours light.