YouTube, politics evolving together

Web site’s effect on presidential election discussed at Harvard

 Every minute, 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. That’s a shocking figure considering the video-sharing site was hardly known three years ago.

Today, YouTube is a place where politicians and news organizations have their own homepages, post videos and connect with voters and viewers, respectively. YouTube has co-sponsored presidential debates, and it recently launched a feature for users to jump to certain points in videos of candidates’ speeches by simply searching for keywords.

“It’s really created a new media ecosystem,” said Steve Grove, YouTube’s head of news and politics, who visited Harvard University’s Institute of Politics yesterday for an informal discussion.

The site is becoming a political battleground on several fronts. Candidates attack each other through ads and documentaries while visitors wage their own wars in the comment section. He even acknowledged a new hierarchy is developing among commentators, and those considered experts on the issues have become “policemen of the site.”

But with all the information, and misinformation, floating around on the site, Grove said it is often challenging to sort out the truth. In that regard, the site is simply a platform for political engagement, he said.