Checking the Data

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By Christine B. Williams and Jeff Gulati

It's clear that 2008 was the YouTube election. The video-sharing service did not exist four years earlier, but candidates (and their supporters) uploaded thousands of videos last year. With so many videos, it's hard to keep track of the trends. But after examining the numbers, there are some clear lessons for candidates and consultants turning to YouTube.

America is watching YouTube, and it’s not just the young anymore. Altogether, 35 percent of Americans watched online political videos in 2008, compared with just 13 percent in 2004. Although the percentage watching decreases among older age groups, the percentage watching within each age group has increased each election cycle. The YouTube audience profile has aged: almost one-fourth are 35 to 49 years old and one-fifth are 50 or older.

Your opponent may not have used YouTube in 2008, but it’s a good bet he or she will in 2010. While only 13 Senate candidates opened a channel in 2006, 72 percent of major party candidates did so in 2008. No House candidate opened a channel in 2006, but 28 percent of major party candidates did so in 2008.

It’s everyone’s party and they’ll play if they want to. Republicans are as likely to open YouTube channels as Democrats; ditto for incumbents, challengers and open-seat candidates. To the extent that there are differences, it’s in the amount of activity: Democrats have the edge in uploads. Among Senate candidates, Democratic candidates with channels averaged 37 videos uploaded while Republican candidates uploaded 25. In the House, Democrats outpaced Republicans in uploads, 27 to 17. House incumbents were another active group, averaging 32 uploaded videos, three times as many as challengers and open-seat candidates.

Don’t be caught in a competitive race without your own YouTube channel. For candidates in tough races, YouTube is one more distribution channel they can harness to mobilize core supporters and extend their reach to new groups of voters.

Have money, will upload. The best-financed candidates are the most likely to have YouTube channels and are most active uploading campaign videos to them.

Video communications catch on more in some communities than others, but not the ones you thought. Candidates who uploaded the most video content came from districts with a high percentage of minorities—not young, college-educated city-slickers. Average age, college education and percent urban population in a district did not predict high volume YouTube uploads. Studies show minorities make higher regular use of iPods, cell-phone text messaging, videogames, video and picture phones and online instant messaging.

YouTube’s got what it takes. Relative to traditional media and campaign websites, YouTube is:

• Timely: The channel can be updated immediately.
• Easy: Updating is simply a matter of uploading a video.
• Cost-effective: Campaigns do not have to purchase as much bandwidth for their websites if they just post a video tab directly linking to YouTube from their website.
• Popular: The site reaches a large and growing audience.

Christine B. Williams is a professor of political science at Bentley University, and is the North American managing editor for the Journal of Political Marketing and associate editor for the Journal of Information Technology & Politics. Jeff Gulati is an assistant professor of political science at Bentley University. Their paper can be viewed here.