The UA is all for YouTube, but students have yet to be impressed.
Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Jason Karsh promised students last year in his campaign platform that he would use YouTube clips to communicate UA updates.
However, he admitted that his first attempt was a "flop."
Karsh, a College senior, posted a short clip to introduce freshmen to student government, but the clip had only 155 views by the end of New Student Orientation.
"I'm not sure if those 155 hits are just my mom or if the freshmen actually got a hold of the clip," Karsh said.
Out of 20 freshmen interviewed, not one was aware of the UA YouTube clip.
Karsh blamed a lack of distribution for the clip's failure; at the time, the only way to reach the entire freshman class was via Pennster.
"We didn't get to market [the first clip] as much as we wanted," UA vice chairwoman and Engineering senior Dipal Patel said.
Karsh and other UA members will be filming a second clip this weekend.
"This one will be better," Patel said.
The link to this clip will be distributed via class listservs next week, a move that Karsh says will ensure more effective distribution.
His goal is to have students post videos onto YouTube in which they voice their concerns about UA topics.
They will then be used during weekly town-hall meetings to provide student opinions.
This sort of interactivity, some say, is becoming much more widely prevalent.
"The Internet has completely reconfigured how politics is done, . even down to school-based politics," Communication and Anthropology professor John Jackson said.
The Internet's growing influence "not only demands our attention but also means we need to retool ourselves as members of a constituency to be more discerning users of these new technologies," he said.
Beyond Penn, Democratic presidential candidates used YouTube to interact with their constituents over the summer.
Individuals sent CNN short clips via YouTube, and candidates responded to these during a live debate.
"One positive outcome of all this YouTube-ing of politics might be that having easier access to the information may make [politics] seems a little bit more relevant," said Jackson, who added that this tactic may help encourage younger people to vote.
"Right now, one of the best means of sending out a message is through videos," Karsh said. "Whether or not it's taken, well, we'll have to see."
