Veracifier
Wednesday Interview: James Kotecki
It was late in January, and YouTuber James Kotecki had an idea. Armed with a webcam and the freedom of Senior Spring, the Georgetown student decided to make a video.
“People just get on YouTube and scratch themselves, and talk about their day, and people watch it,” James told us. “And I’m better than that, so I did one. I talked about politics because that’s what I liked. And then I did some mainstream videos, and I started noticing that politicians had YouTube channels.”
But in early ’07, not every candidate did. “Some did,” he remembered. “More Democrats than Republicans,” and Chris Dodd was one of them. His page was different than the others, too. “It said ‘upload your response,’ and being interested in politics, and a geek, I did. I uploaded my video, commenting on his video, what I liked, what I didn’t, and what they could do to improve it.”
Veracifier: So how did you get started?
James: I just contacted all the candidates and asked them if they would do it, and Ron Paul was the first one to say yes. They were the first to say yeah, let’s go to a college kid's dorm room for a webcam interview.
It’s the first presidential interview in a college dorm room. I’m 99.99 percent sure. I caught up with him at the Iowa Straw Poll and he said he remembered me from the dorm room. He said, “oh, yeah, you’re the guy who got us started.”
Now he’s working with Dave McMillan, another user who messaged him one day on YouTube.
James: The messages always say, “I like your videos, look at my videos.” But for some reason, I actually did. And I was very impressed by the stuff on his channel. It was funny, similar style to my own. Scripted, but just him looking at the camera, playing a different character. I emailed him back and said we should work together. He’s in L.A., so the first time we met was on the Internet -- we only met in person because of the YouTube debates; we both went to Charleston.
Veracifier: So we’ve watched the Race/Class video you two did together. How do you choose your video topics? Are these issues you think are under-reported?
James: It’s political and social issues from our perspective, and he’s black and I’m white, so sometimes our perceptions are racially based, and sometimes they’re just our perceptions. In the race and class one, we set out to mock the mainstream media.
Veracifier: In that video, you imply that conflict drives viewership. Do you think that’s the case?
James: I think the conversation goes along with the Internet. Our goal is to see if we can put on a show. One of the challenges is to put on a show that’s entertaining, but a lot of what we do is try to cover an issue - but take it down to its lowest common denominator, making it as base as possible. [e.g.] Race is a black and white issue.
James: The point of our show is to see if we can make a show based on mocking that, or moving somehow beyond that. What we said from the beginning was we don’t want to be a black and white version of Hannity & Colmes. That’s not all we want to be – we want to be a step above that.
Veracifier: Do you consider yourself a ‘journalist?’
James: There was a big controversy on this on MediaBistro. Is James Kotecki a real journalist? In a sense, I resisted this for awhile… the closest thing you can compare me to is a journalist, but I’m not a journalist. Then overtime I realized I am a journalist. I report on the subject, a very small subject on how politicians are using the Internet, I’ve reported on presidential candidates.
I don’t think it matters. What I call myself has no bearing on what I’m going to do. And I never did any of this stuff because I wanted to be a journalist or call myself a journalist. What I really call myself is a video blogger, because I’m combing video, news, humor, and a very small attention span into the videos that I make – and that’s not something a traditional journalist might do.
Veracifier: So what kind of impact do you hope your work will have?
James: I know my influence is very limited. But I have caught some people’s attention, and, relative to my age, I do have a good political influence. It’s within a rather limited audience – thousands of people probably on any given video – but the people who watch them, I hope , are able to influence things. My goal overall is to just convince politicians to use this medium as a conversation, not a one way dialogue, but a real dialogue because if we can, we can reaffirm some faith in the system.
Veracifier: Besides the Ron Paul video, what should we tell our viewers they need to watch?
James: The 1000-subscriber video. It’s one of the ones I’m most proud of. 1000 subscribers super spectacular. It’s me celebrating getting 1000 subscribers on YouTube a few months ago. I did it in the form of a rap, and I think that not as many people have watched it relative to how good it is, or how much I’ve liked it. It’s funny, when you put videos on YouTube, you have no idea what it’s going to be popular.
We also really like his interviews with John Edwards:
and Dan Rather:
“People just get on YouTube and scratch themselves, and talk about their day, and people watch it,” James told us. “And I’m better than that, so I did one. I talked about politics because that’s what I liked. And then I did some mainstream videos, and I started noticing that politicians had YouTube channels.”
But in early ’07, not every candidate did. “Some did,” he remembered. “More Democrats than Republicans,” and Chris Dodd was one of them. His page was different than the others, too. “It said ‘upload your response,’ and being interested in politics, and a geek, I did. I uploaded my video, commenting on his video, what I liked, what I didn’t, and what they could do to improve it.”
Veracifier: So how did you get started?
James: I just contacted all the candidates and asked them if they would do it, and Ron Paul was the first one to say yes. They were the first to say yeah, let’s go to a college kid's dorm room for a webcam interview.
It’s the first presidential interview in a college dorm room. I’m 99.99 percent sure. I caught up with him at the Iowa Straw Poll and he said he remembered me from the dorm room. He said, “oh, yeah, you’re the guy who got us started.”
Now he’s working with Dave McMillan, another user who messaged him one day on YouTube.
James: The messages always say, “I like your videos, look at my videos.” But for some reason, I actually did. And I was very impressed by the stuff on his channel. It was funny, similar style to my own. Scripted, but just him looking at the camera, playing a different character. I emailed him back and said we should work together. He’s in L.A., so the first time we met was on the Internet -- we only met in person because of the YouTube debates; we both went to Charleston.
Veracifier: So we’ve watched the Race/Class video you two did together. How do you choose your video topics? Are these issues you think are under-reported?
James: It’s political and social issues from our perspective, and he’s black and I’m white, so sometimes our perceptions are racially based, and sometimes they’re just our perceptions. In the race and class one, we set out to mock the mainstream media.
Veracifier: In that video, you imply that conflict drives viewership. Do you think that’s the case?
James: I think the conversation goes along with the Internet. Our goal is to see if we can put on a show. One of the challenges is to put on a show that’s entertaining, but a lot of what we do is try to cover an issue - but take it down to its lowest common denominator, making it as base as possible. [e.g.] Race is a black and white issue.
James: The point of our show is to see if we can make a show based on mocking that, or moving somehow beyond that. What we said from the beginning was we don’t want to be a black and white version of Hannity & Colmes. That’s not all we want to be – we want to be a step above that.
Veracifier: Do you consider yourself a ‘journalist?’
James: There was a big controversy on this on MediaBistro. Is James Kotecki a real journalist? In a sense, I resisted this for awhile… the closest thing you can compare me to is a journalist, but I’m not a journalist. Then overtime I realized I am a journalist. I report on the subject, a very small subject on how politicians are using the Internet, I’ve reported on presidential candidates.
From the discussion on MediaBistro:
JeanMarie Posted – 7/21/2007 6:53:45 PM
I'm not sure I understand why you wouldn't call him a journalist. Aren't his "clips" the work he's doing?
Mailbag Posted – 7/22/2007 12:22:31 PM
Licensing journalists, as we do with teachers or other professions, isn't answering whether or not James is a journalist (or for that matter Josh Wolfe even though SPJ declared him one. Court didn't agree.) So, who decides who is and who isn't a journalist hundreds of years into the lifespan of this profession?
Aoscruggs Posted – 7/22/2007 8:05:58 PM
What makes a journalist?
Answer to mailbag and noname: credibility and ethics.
Are traditional journalists really that elitetest or are they just hearing footsteps?
JeanMarie Posted – 7/21/2007 6:53:45 PM
I'm not sure I understand why you wouldn't call him a journalist. Aren't his "clips" the work he's doing?
Mailbag Posted – 7/22/2007 12:22:31 PM
Licensing journalists, as we do with teachers or other professions, isn't answering whether or not James is a journalist (or for that matter Josh Wolfe even though SPJ declared him one. Court didn't agree.) So, who decides who is and who isn't a journalist hundreds of years into the lifespan of this profession?
Aoscruggs Posted – 7/22/2007 8:05:58 PM
What makes a journalist?
Answer to mailbag and noname: credibility and ethics.
Are traditional journalists really that elitetest or are they just hearing footsteps?
I don’t think it matters. What I call myself has no bearing on what I’m going to do. And I never did any of this stuff because I wanted to be a journalist or call myself a journalist. What I really call myself is a video blogger, because I’m combing video, news, humor, and a very small attention span into the videos that I make – and that’s not something a traditional journalist might do.
Veracifier: So what kind of impact do you hope your work will have?
James: I know my influence is very limited. But I have caught some people’s attention, and, relative to my age, I do have a good political influence. It’s within a rather limited audience – thousands of people probably on any given video – but the people who watch them, I hope , are able to influence things. My goal overall is to just convince politicians to use this medium as a conversation, not a one way dialogue, but a real dialogue because if we can, we can reaffirm some faith in the system.
Veracifier: Besides the Ron Paul video, what should we tell our viewers they need to watch?
James: The 1000-subscriber video. It’s one of the ones I’m most proud of. 1000 subscribers super spectacular. It’s me celebrating getting 1000 subscribers on YouTube a few months ago. I did it in the form of a rap, and I think that not as many people have watched it relative to how good it is, or how much I’ve liked it. It’s funny, when you put videos on YouTube, you have no idea what it’s going to be popular.
We also really like his interviews with John Edwards:
and Dan Rather:
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