YouTube-A Double-Edged Sword

Youtube have come to stay. People have to accept that fact. Its influence is accelerating at an amazing rate, its users are many and its audience can be found in every corner of the earth where a computer and a mouse can be found. Any public relations officer or marketer who cares about staying in business or at least being competitive and getting his/ her organization out there better get on board.

Its followers are more like disciples-ardent supporters and users who sometimes leave their screens only to go to the bathroom. That sounds like an exaggeration but it is close to the truth. Young adults from the ages of 16-34 are its users. Because of its popularity and wide audience, Youtube has become the most inexpensive and widely view social network video, commanding millions in following. Its influence however, can be for good or ill. "Internet video is a powerful medium. It can make regular Joes and Janes into instant celebrities or at least drive headlines for a news cycle or two. Remember the high school student who called the school superintendent to ask why school hadn’t been cancelled on a snowy day and got a tongue lashing by the superintendent’s wife? The audio tape went viral on the Internet and the student’s story was covered by every morning news program the next day. Or take the music group OK Go, whose YouTube video in which they performed a song on treadmills led to a radio hit? And of course there’s the Obama Girl"(Kristen Fyfe, 2008 ), and if i may add the McCain Girl!

So, can public relations people use the medium to promote their organizations?. By the click of the mouse millions of people all over the world can flock to your website after they've watched an amazing video about who are you and what you do. In the same vein, a stupid or unintentional mistake can send the image of your organization into the gutter.

In conclusion, Youtube as a video sharing tool can be a double-edge sword, "While Internet videosharing clearly has the power to benefit society and inspire good, like Pausch’s “Last Lecture,” the flip side is also true. In the quest for celebrity some people will go to disgusting lengths, like beating someone senseless, to use YouTube to promote themselves." (Fyfe,2008)

Life's sweetest dream

Well, I hope my dreams never end because I dream day and night. My dreams take me to far away places. Places you will never understand or places many of you probably never will be. I dream about the forests of Mama africa, with its small and large animals.

I dreams about the tame and wild animals. I dream about them crying in the death of night. I dream about the sahara desert with its wrenching hot sun penetrating the endless sand. I dream about the mountains and the lakes meandering their way through the forests and the deep valleys but most of all, I dream about myself leaving the halls of higher institution, having buried myself in the knowledge that America promises to the many visitors who come to its shores. I don't dream to be the best, because the best find themselves on the corridors of Wall Street killing those of us who like to dream.

My dreams take me to the masses-the builders of homes, societies and countries. In five years, I will be dreaming still, but my dreams will be refined and more pure than now. I dream to build a stable family, a stable career and yes, a stable dream. Now my dreams are growing and sometimes unsteady. Masters Degree! I like it. But i seek to be no one's master. They are the ones who kill the masses' dreams.

I hope a Masters degree will help me to dream big and to dream high, to dream good and to dream sweet. To dream to take my thinking high, to dream to be a wise partner. Partner in society's cause, a partner to a world where people are free to dream and where people's dreams are un-interrupted by those who feign to lead.

They are called Dictators. They roam the forests of Africa and torment their people. They drag us from our houses in the night while we are still dreaming and interrupt our mid-day dreams. Dictators will die and the power that they took from the people will return to the people. I will be there that day when Mama Africa will embrace her children again. That is why i am here, getting a Masters degree but i seek to be no one's master.

The Travelling President

Bra Kuffour is having a red carpet treatment in Mr. Bush's White House. Most Sikamen and women do not even have a green carpet in their black houses in Sikaman. Ehhh "Ye bre."