Thursday 19 March 2009

Anyone heard of Youtube?

I couldn't get to Harrogate this year, but was assured that Nick Clegg's speech on Sunday was excellent. So, I thought I'd watch it on Youtube. But if it's there, I can't find it. In fact, the only stuff about the Harrogate Conference I can find on Youtube is Jonathan Wallace's entertaining video diary of the weekend (including a toe curling singalong known as the glee club, purleese!) and the short film shown as a taster before Clegg's speech.


Sure, you can watch the speech on Nick Clegg's own website and the Lib Dems' website, but how many ordinary voters visit those sites, compared to the millions who browse on Youtube?


Barack Obama's success has shown the value of using the internet as a means of political communication, and we have many bloggers and tweeters in our ranks, but how about communicating with real voters. Jonathan's videos get a huge number of viewings; perhaps someone at Cowley Street could ask him about using Youtube as a means of poltical communication. The Conference, including both Vince Cable's and Nick Clegg's speeches should have been on Youtube within 24 hours; by the time someone gets round to putting it up they'll be metaphorical chip wrappers.

2 comments:

Ryan said...

Cleggs speech was some 40 mins long. Youtube only allow videos of 10 minutes.
You can however see the full speech on the iPlayer (until 21st March) here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j7z4q/Briefings_Nick_Clegg/

Mike said...

"Youtube only allow videos of 10 minutes."

But cutting it into 4 shorter videos wouldn't be too onerous.