EmergencyCheese: A Citizen Journalist gets a taste of MSM

James Kotecki, a.k.a. EmergencyCheese on YouTube, is likely a well-known personality for this crowd. And James' appeal as a citizen journalist and YouTube "guru," dispatching his advice to candidates on how best to connect with the YouTube community, has doled up its fair-share of press from the mainstream media.

But now, James... is the mainstream media. At least, sort of. And its his experience jumping from "Citizen Journalist" to "Journalist" that I wanted to include in this space through an email interview with James.

The quick background is that James went to the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa as a paid freelancer for one of our favorite stops, the Politico.com. You can see all of the products of his experience on his YouTube channel.

Here's the interview (edited lightly for readability):

1. What was it like being a vlogger/reporter on the campaign trail?

CHEESE: It was one of the sweatiest and most rewarding jobs I've ever done. The Iowa State Fair and the Iowa Straw Poll are target-rich environments for politically-themed YouTube videos, because they both combine national politics with a semi-goofy carnival atmosphere that's really fun to immerse yourself in.

There were a lot of regular media people there, and I'm pretty sure I was the only vlogger (certainly the only vlogger with a press pass). From that standpoint, it was nice to feel 1) sort of accepted by legitimate journalists and 2) that I was covering the event in a way that they would not be - a highly personalized, hopefully fun-filled account of all the varied aspects of the Poll.

Because of everything going on, filming was no problem. The tougher part was forcing myself to stop and upload videos. Ideally, I'd space all the videos out evenly during the day, but I had to do them in batches to be efficient. Unfortunately, this gives some of the videos less attention than if they all came out individually.

Even with light editing, it still takes some time to cut and upload videos, as opposed to simply writing a blog post. So at least for now, it's not quite "live vlogging" - probably semi-live is a more appropriate term. But what I hope is that I've created something over the last few days that provides a unique and multi-faceted record of the event that people will enjoy watching well after the event is over.

2. Did you get more access to candidates because they knew that you were with Politico.com?

CHEESE: Only one time did the Politico name clearly help me - Duncan Hunter's staffer perked up when he heard that I was with Politico.com. Ron Paul's folks knew me from the dorm room days, and Huckabee's people have known me for a while, too. Overall, I combined my YouTube street cred with the Politico brand to help me get as much access as possible.

3. Do you plan on continuing to vlog, either officially or unofficially, as the campaign continues? IF so, what's next?

CHEESE: Yes - after having done the YouTube debate and now this, I know that this is something I really enjoy. At a minimum, I'd like to get back out to Iowa for the caucuses - I met some really nice people out there. But hopefully some cool stuff comes up before then, too. As my history shows, I've never let being "unofficial" keep me from covering politics.

4. Any general comments?

CHEESE: The Politico was a really great partner in all this - their only direction was to go to Iowa and see what kind of videos I could send back, so I had complete freedom to be myself. Jonathan Martin and Roger Simon, the two Politico reporters who were also in Ames, were both very nice and very good on camera - they answered all the questions I had before I asked them. Overall, a five-star experience that I would gladly repeat.

So how did James do?

I emailed Jonathan Martin from the Politico and he said, "It was great having James out there and really gave folks at home for the sights and sounds of a political ritual that can't be done justice in print. And the anything-goes ethos of YouTube were a great fit for such a carnival-like atmosphere."

Keep changing the world of journalism James. We're watching (and rooting for you).

For more about James Kotecki and how "YouTube is leveling the playing for citizen journalists," check out this post I wrote in May.