A comparison between candidates shows the difference in each campaign’s approach to posting videos on YouTube. Obama has been posting far more videos than Clinton or McCain from the beginning. He also has almost four times more total views than the other two candidates combined. The following chart shows basic information about each candidate’s videos.

While Obama’s videos have the highest average and median numbers of views, they also have been receiving the largest range of views, with 4.5 million views on the high end and only 61 views on the low end.

An interesting pattern that can be seen in this graph is the slight decline in rate of posting videos in the month of March. This makes sense for John McCain, as he had already secured his nomination. It also makes sense for Clinton and Obama, because March, especially late March, is void of primary elections. This suggests that, as far as posting videos goes, Clinton and Obama have been posting videos based on upcoming primary elections.

The cumulative number of views each candidate has received over time follows a similar pattern to the number of videos being posted. Obama’s videos have been viewed at a much higher rate than either Clinton or McCain. One major difference, however, is the huge spike that Obama had during the month of March. This spike was due to the posting of his speech, “A More Perfect Union,” which was given in response to the Reverend Wright scandal. Apart from this outlier, all three candidates experienced a March lull in views. Obama’s view rate returned to normal in early April, while Clinton’s never fully rebounded.

Comparison of Video Types

There are some interesting patterns of types of videos being posted by each candidate. Clinton and McCain have been posting very similar types of video. Obama, on the other hand, has a very different focus. While Clinton and McCain have been focusing on commercials and news clips, Obama has primarily been posting speeches and “other” videos. News clips make up a large amount of Obama’s videos, but the percentage of commercials he has been posting is much lower than Clinton or McCain, at only 14.6%.