Mention YouTube or online video to some policy wonks in DC and you’re bound to see eyes roll and get a lecture about how there are more important things to tend to than watching that Star Wars kid goof off.
Of course, there’s much more to online video than lowbrow stuff like cats puking or even clips of reporters throwing their shoes at the President of the Unites States.
Fact is online video can be one of the best ways to distribute your in-depth, highly educational (dare I say wonky?!) material to the masses, and some people are already proving it.
For example, Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute has released a series of very successful online economic lectures through the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. While he almost certainly has and will continue to make these points in written white papers, by merely talking in a conversational, engaging way into a video camera and mixing in a few stock photos and graphics to keep the visuals from getting monotonous, Dan is able to spread his message to tens of thousands of people around the world via video. His most recent video (a very relevant one about how NOT to deal with the current economic slump) is embedded below, and you can check out his others here.
Another great example is this global warming lecture on Reason.tv by Danish thinker Bjorn Lomborg. Cut from the same mold as Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” there are no bells and whistles, no high-tech special effects, but it’s a riveting half hour that largely counters everything you’ve ever heard about how we should deal with global warming. Another Lomborg lecture on YouTube has received more than 90,000 views to date as part of the incredibly popular TED lecture series.
Of course, Dan and Bjorn are engaging, interesting, camera-ready personalities, so their videos are going to be more successful and popular than the stereotypical economist who might come across more like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
That said, I’m pretty sure they’re not the only interesting spokesmen of substance out there. In challenging times like these, more and more regular people (increasing numbers of whom are out of work and sitting at home on their computers) have the time and the curiosity to learn more about how to improve the situation we’re in. Perhaps not curious enough to read a detailed economic white paper, but probably curious enough to watch a 10-20 minute video about it. So let’s get our message out to them…
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