News: James Wolcott in Vanity Fair this month suggests it may: ” YouTube, the free video-sharing bulletin board founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees, is where it all happens. Mouse clicks and video clips, they go together like a nervous twitch. Where the presidential epic entails reams of psychological interpretation, novelistic scene setting, and historical placement, YouTube puts politics literally at one’s fingertips in the active present, making it a narrative any mutant can join.”
But Wolcott doesn’t think it’s all good. “More creative involvement in the democratic process—how can this not be healthy? “Citizen journalists” and “citizen ad-makers,” united in idealistic purpose—what’s not to like? Yet inwardly I groan. Speaking for Me-self, the last thing I need is more crap to watch, no matter how ingenious or buzz-worthy it may be.”
