Looking Back as We Prepare to Move Forward: US Presidential Candidates' Adoption of YouTube

As the United States prepares for the 2012 Presidential Election, we reflect on how the 2008 candidates and the voting public adopted social computing technology with specific focus on YouTube. Using the Social Influence Model as a framework, this article sought to examine how candidates adopted YouTube to determine what types of messages were disseminated via YouTube and what kind of response from viewers videos received. We conducted a content analysis of candidate YouTube sites, focusing on video characteristics and content. Findings indicate that the candidates did not use YouTube to its fullest extent and that there were significant differences between the candidates in terms of the types of videos posted and the content posted and that constituents did adopt the medium as demonstrated in viewership numbers and responses.