It seemed like YouTube dominated the year’s topics like no other (and would be a far more appropriate “person of the year”, but I digress), and we sure posted our own share of YouTube related news on this site. But, if you’d like a summary of just how transforming YouTube, and the phenomena of online video, has been over the past year, head over to a post over at the ABC blog (yes, first CBS, now ABC — I point out news wherever I can find it) which details a report on the upcoming 20/20 show this friday.
It describes how, in the States anyway, YouTube has created a mechanism where online video is easily shared — resulting in real transformative effects in the way people perceive the news, and more importantly, how certain marginalized perspectives can gain traction and a real voice.
From military video bloggers, providing an uncensored view of what improvided explosive devices can really do, to online videoshot making the rounds during the battle for the House and Senate this year during American politics (“macaca” seemed to be everywhere for a while), online video seemed to be everywhere this year.
While privacy advocates complain that making everyone a video publisher is a quick ticket to privacy disasters, I think the flip side is that it creates a sense of accountability on behalf of people who need it the most — politicians. And they need to be aware that you can’t change the nature of this ‘reality’ any more either. More than blog postings, viral video has the potential to circle the world many times over, and its just in its infancy.
Its a YouTube world we live in — and to quote this post, and for those who can’t deal with that reality, those who don’t want to play by those rules, then perhaps its time to get out of the game.
