So, I'm in the middle of preparing for a presentation about video in education that I'll be giving later this year at the Shanghai Learning 2.0 Conference. Sometimes I like to have a little background noise while I work, and so anchor Chris Jansing is chattering away on MSNBC. The topic turns to the 2008 elections (I suppose no celebrities have entered rehab this week) and she is interviewing a guest about the Obama Girl Video and the follow up Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl by Barely Political. If you haven't seen these yet, they're cute, but silly and almost devoid of political content. Nothing wrong with that of course, although it might explain how it became a topic on a major "news" channel.

Now, its very funny because I'm in the middle of thinking about how to talk about the power and reach of video as a medium. Meanwhile, on the TV, Jansing asks her guest (someone from the Washington Post, I missed the name) if she thinks that politicians should be worried that 'ordinary people' are creating professional looking videos on their laptops.

Huh?

In other words, should politicians be concerned that the people will have as much influence in the democratic process as the PR firms that they hire? Perish the thought! For those of us who include video in our art curriculums, we know how powerful a medium that video is for communication. We know how easy it is for our work to be seen by a wider audience on sites like Youtube. Obama Girl has just passed 2 million hits. What, if any effect will it have on the political process?

More importantly, what effect would your students have if they have the opportunity to have their voices heard?