The YouTube Debate in the 2008 New Zealand Elections

Brisbane.
The final speaker in this ANZCA 2009 session is Bronwyn Beatty, speaking about the YouTube election debate last year, hosted by New Zealand's One News. This follows similar events in other countries, chiefly the US - it is part of an ongoing YouTubeification of politics, some have said.

TVNZ had an agreement with political leaders in New Zealand for three debates between the two main candidates. For the final of these debates, it invited video questions from its audience, uploaded through YouTube. This was framed as participating in the democratic process, and closely followed the model established by CNN for its debates between the US presidential candidates - TVNZ selected 'the best' of the user submissions to show to the candidates.

YouTube questions would be posed, candidates would respond, and then political reporters would follow up - the live audiences also in the hall did not participate directly. And of course there was great hype from TVNZ about the democratic potential of this model - claiming a shift of power from politicians to the public (and highlighting TV's role in this). YouTube was similarly self-congratulatory. Television remains a major medium in New Zealand, of course, so this partnership is an important advertisement for YouTube (and lends it respectability).

This model was strongly criticised by some parties, however - it was described as 'stuntsville', and as adding to audience cynicism about the debate format. TVNZ argued, however, that this type of questioning (and there were a few very oddball submissions) brings in a younger audience. There are also questions of equality of access (broadband quality in New Zealand is uneven, and there are issues of education and technological literacy especially for rural and marginalised groups), of course. Those who use technology to participate in politics tend to be those who are already highly involved.

And that's it - nice conference!

Technorati : ANZCA 2009, New Zealand, TVNZ, YouTube, access, debate, democracy, election, participation, politics
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