This year’s presidential candidates have embraced many of the new media outlets available online.  For the first time ever, CNN and YouTube held Democratic and Republican debates back in July and November of 2007 that took advantage of people video mailing their questions via YouTube.  The candidates were also encouraged to create YouTube ads that aired during the debates.  Since then all of the potential nominees and now presidential candidates have taken advantage of YouTube’s ability to reach out to just about anyone with internet access.

An article from BBC news highlights the new ways that Senators Obama and McCain have been using these outlets to reach out to voters, highlight their platforms and get out the vote.  The article focuses on two aspects of how online media has affected this year’s campaign season, Obama’s advertising via video games and McCain’s grips with YouTube’s copyrighting clauses.

Senator Obama has moved beyond conventional sources such as television, radio and print.  The article states that his campaign has paid for advertising in 18 video games.  These ads are being run in 10 states that allow early voting to encourage potential voters to vote before November 4^th.

Senator McCain’s campaign has been taking advantage of YouTube by posting campaign related news segments on the website.  However, many of these videos have been removed due to copyright claims outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  McCain’s campaign disagrees with the removal of the news segments because they are an effective media outlet for the campaign and include important information for voters.

Filed under: Politics, Social Networking