Media News - Wednesday, May 06, 2009

EU politics to be YouTubed

With an eye on the grassroots political campaign of Barack Obama, the communications-savvy US president, YouTube has teamed up with a European broadcaster to try and bring a similar 'Yes we can' buzz to EU politics one month ahead of the European elections. The video sharing website on Tuesday announced it is going to collaborate with Euronews to provide an online forum for MEPs and experts to talk about the issues on voters' minds. Later this week onwards, EU citizens from across the 27 member states can put a question to those running for office via a new YouTube channel called Questions for Europe. 'People want to be on a level playing field with politicians,' said YouTube political communications director Aaron Ferstman, noting that politics and the internet provide the 'perfect marriage.' He said that the level of politics on YouTube had evolved from the 'gotcha' moments of exposing politicians' slip-ups to become a real political medium. 'What politicians learned is that YouTube was a very powerful tool,' he said, with seven of the 16 US presidential candidates using it to announce their campaign. (EU Observer)

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