Beyond the content of the speech, some media coverage focused on the manner in which it spread through the Internet. Video of the speech "went viral," reaching over 1.3 million views on YouTube within a day of the speech's delivery.[71] By March 27, the speech had been viewed nearly 3.4 million times.[72] In the days after the speech, links to the video and to transcripts of the speech were the most popular items posted on Facebook.[72] The New York Times observed that the transcript of the speech was e-mailed more frequently than their news story on the speech, and suggested that this might be indicative of a new pattern in how young people receive news, avoiding conventional media filters.[72] Maureen Dowd further referenced the phenomenon on March 30, writing in her column that Obama "can ensorcell when he has to, and he has viral appeal. Who else could alchemize a nuanced 40-minute speech on race into must-see YouTube viewing for 20-year-olds?"[73] By May 30, the speech had been viewed on YouTube over 4.5 million times.[74] The Los Angeles Times cited the prominence of the speech and the music video "Yes We Can" as examples of the Obama campaign's success in spreading its message online, in contrast with the campaign of Republican (then) presumptive nominee John McCain.[74]
Mike Wesch on 19 Jul 08he Two Steps I'll Always Be Ahead Of You By Dear Media, I usually don't like to brag until after the war has officially been won, but some sites have already blown my cover, so I am without the luxury of waiting. On June 19th, Bandaids launched a YouTube Viewer with the intention of making Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend the Most Watched Video of all time on YouTube. In the time that the Viewer was running, it recorded 1.2 million loads of Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend video page on YouTube. Entertainment Tonight, Perez Hilton, Wired.com, The Globe and Mail, The Sydney Morning Herald, TMF, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world picked up on the story resulting in quite the frenzy. Some praised the campaign saying, "It's the kind of view-gaming that advertisers would normally consider fraud - that is, if what the fans were doing wasn't better than the best advertising Lavigne and her label RCA could buy." Others... okay, the majority... just called us dirty old cheaters. But like a magician revealing the M.O. to a convincing trick, I have to admit that Bandaids' YouTube Campaign was nothing but misdirection. Bandaiders didn't cheat: the YouTube Viewer was a Hoax. All along, I knew that YouTube capped the number of views added to a video at 200 per IP address per day. As such, the only way to make Girlfriend the most watched video on YouTube the fast way was to increase our reach, not our views per person. And the best way to do that was to use viral marketing to tap into traditional news sources. So our members went about inflating the count on the YouTube Viewer and spreading the link around the net. In the mean time, the real end game of the campaign was unfolding nicely. As media outlets around the world began accusing Bandaids of cheating Avril's way into the record books, they drove thousands upon thousands of curious folks to watch Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend video on YouTube (yes, even you Perez). This resulted in a much larger boost to Avril'
