This week's perspective from TD&F Special Teams, com.motion:This week Prime Minister Stephen Harper become the second world leader to use YouTube to answer questions from citizens. Acting on an invitation from Google directly, Stephen Harper took questions (moderated, of course) from Canadians and relayed to him by moderator and Google CFO, Patrick Pichette, who is himself a Canadian. The event was clearly, an unabashedly, a promotion for the opportunities provided by YouTube and an opportunity for the Prime Minister to delve into new mediums to ‘engage’ Canadians. Those of us that are heavily invested in the online space and active consumers of multimedia content may be critical of the buttoned down, filtered approach taken by the Prime Minster. We are accustomed to a more free flowing, Leo Laporte style approach to media. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic for a head of state and not in the vein of this Prime Minister. That being said, although over 35,000 watched the video online, exponential more have heard that the event took place. That alone is enough to spread news to the Prime Minister’s target audience, the so called ‘average Canadian’ who is passively engaged online, but likely to be impressed to hear the Prime Minister is making an effort. Of course expectations are high and criticisms always loom in politics and in any online execution, but the point here is that Stephen Harper is said to have answered questions of his citizens using YouTube. That alone achieved a goal. The next step may be to do it better.
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