U.S. Senator Obama gives his speech on Race (mentions YouTube)

When reading U.S. Senator Barack Obama's speech on race this month, one particular line caught this marketer's eye:

And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and YouTube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way. (Emphasis mine)

In Obama's pivotal election year speech to the American people, Obama not only mention YouTube but does it in the same breath as television. We've come along way from when YouTube was just a way for Americans to see clips of shows like Saturday Night Live.

While Social Media is not the end all be all of media, the influence is wide ranging - from the U.S. 2008 elections to the TSA Blog/YouTube Channel to helping organizing mass street protests against FARC in Columbia.

See below for a run down...

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