Party Leaders on YouTube from April 1 to April 6, 2007

Highlights of last week: Digital Partisans battle over copyright issues on Youtube, YouTube Video Stalks Conservative B.C. MP

This week saw a considerable jump in the popularity of pre-election YouTube videos, due in large part due to nation wide press reports [1] on the release of Liberal blogger videos (charts ranking top viewed videos per leader follow below). The popularity of videos on Dion and the prime minister are considerably higher than those of the other party leaders (see bar chart below).

Last week Liberal and Conservative video bloggers exchanged accusations over copyright issues on YouTube. The YouTube user liberalvideo successfully petitioned YouTube to remove two videos critical of Stephane Dion. Conservative bloggers countered stating that it was an improper copyright infringement claim. See this YouTube page for evidence [2] of YouTube complying with liberalvideo’s claim. Conservative bloggers also pointed out Liberal video bloggers potentially illegal use of copyrighted music in their critical videos of Stephen Harper.

This week saw the dramatic rise in popularity of a candidate stalking video on YouTube. The video [3] captures a number of individuals challenging B.C. Conservative MP Ron Cannan during an open house in the B.C. Conservative’s riding. The video received close to 6000 views for the past week, more than three times the popularity of videos posted by the major parties or party bloggers.

The NDP continues to upload folksy promotional style videos to highlight the values of party members. Olivia Chow’s videos [4] are among the top videos this past week.

Total Views of Leadership Videos on YouTube for Week Ending April 6, 2007

Stephen Harper

Stephane Dion

Jack Layton

Giles Duceppe

Elizabeth May