For the first time, online video played a huge role in an election cycle. The numbers are astounding though it will be interesting to see further breakdowns of the type (campaign generated, user generated, traditional media generated) of videos that dominated attention. Here's on article on the role of online video in this years election.
From the article:
"According to divinity's statistics, Obama-related online videos were viewed 889,108,102 times and McCain-related ones were viewed 554,876,413 times since July 2007. Obama had huge spikes in views per day following several news-worthy events, including the win in the Iowa caucus, the "Yes We Can" speech, and his nomination acceptance at the Democratic National Convention. But what's even more telling,based on the overwhelming focus by voters on economic issues, is Obama's online video attention following the meltdown on Wall Street. Obama-related videos were viewed at least 4 million times a day throughout the month of October. His largest day, nearly 8 million views, came after a 777 point drop on the NYSE Oct. 15."
