Must Snooze T.V., Lawmakers Now on YouTube

Posted by ChrisMonty on January 13th 2009

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: Image via CrunchBase

Well, here is some good news for you if you happen to get tired of watching paint dry.

YouTube is aiming to raise its profile in American politics by helping deliver a glimpse of life on Capitol Hill to its large online audience.

On Monday, YouTube, in collaboration with Congress, will unveil two new Web pages, one for the House and one for the Senate, where every lawmaker will be able to create a video channel on the site. The pages will include a map of the United States that will allow users to easily navigate to the channel of their elected officials.

Already several members of Congress have channels on YouTube. But by creating a central hub for all senators and representatives, YouTube is hoping to encourage more members to create their own channels, not only as a place to promote their agendas but also as a forum for interacting with citizens.

“People out there don’t really know what senators and congressmen do on a daily basis,” said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. “This will give them a sense of what they are doing.”

Most of these videos have very low view counts, less than 500 each. Nobody was watching these videos before. Putting them altogether in their own channel is not going to make them more popular.