If the 1960 US presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon is remembered as the first one to be decided by television, the present one is being shaped by the internet.

Those who heard the final debate between the two on radio had thought that Nixon had won it. Those who saw it on TV thought otherwise and Kennedy won a razor thin victory.

Although the web has been a popular medium for nearly a decade, it has now matured into a political force. Nothing illustrates the new power of the Internet better than the YouTube website, where thousands of videos are uploaded everyday and accessed around the world.

The interactive use of video clips on the YouTube has dramatically changed how political issues pan out in these elections. It has helped and hurt political campaigns in new ways.

The significant speech on race by Senator Barack Obama last month was broadcast live on TV; but its length and subtlety meant its immediate impact was rather limited. But the full 38-minute speech has already been watched 4 million times on the YouTube since the first broadcast.

However, the web cuts both ways. The clip showing Obama’s Pastor Jeremiah Wright condemning America, first put out by the conservative Fox TV, hurt the Senator’s campaign and forced him to address the race issue head on.

The Republican nominee, Senator John McCain too has been at the receiving end. His attempted at humour earlier on in the campaign with a song on bombing Iran has come back to haunt him on the YouTube. Opponents of McCain for example have spliced his bomb Iran clip with segments from the 1960s film on nuclear war, ‘Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.’

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