You direct the questions this time

….sort of. I’ve been telling you for many months now, both here and on radio, that you will figure far more prominently in these next elections than ever before. People are always asking what they can do to make a difference or even be heard. I say you’re being heard and listened to now more than ever before in politics….because of participation technology. In the last series of televised Republican and Democratic debates, we saw the ‘American Idol-izing’ of the presidential candidates. Viewers voted through text messages and online polls for the ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’

Now, CNN is about to host the first YouTube debate.

Not long ago Kim, a mother of two, walked into her bedroom, turned on her webcam and made a 30-second video. When the Democratic presidential candidates gather in Charleston, S.C., on Monday for their next debate, co-sponsored by CNN and YouTube, this may be one of the questions:

“Hi, my name is Kim. I’m 36 years old and hope to be a future breast cancer survivor from Long Island. . . . Like millions of Americans, I’ve gone for years without health insurance. . . . What would you, as president, do to make low-cost or free preventative medicine available for everybody in this country?”

So far more than 1,300 video questions have been uploaded onto YouTube, the popular video-sharing site, many of them as intimate as the one from Kim, who at one point removes a wig to reveal her bald head. CNN will sort through the submissions to select the two dozen or so that Democrats in Charleston will answer after watching them on a 25-by-18-foot screen.

No one quite knows how the debate will work — some candidates don’t even know how to prepare for it. But the fact that it is happening at all is a testament to the increasing role of online video in politics and the emergence of a 2 1/2 -year-old Web site better known for its irreverent, sometimes crude, content than as a factor in the 2008 campaign.

It’s the inevitable cultural evolution that technology has forced, and traditional media are scrambling to catch up with it. They’re doing a good job, I think, given the capability of this stuff to get way out of control.

For many who use it, YouTube is a digital democracy of sorts. A video gets more popular the more views it gets, simple as that. But while YouTube collects the video questions from its users — who can submit them until Sunday — CNN’s political team, headed by David Bohrman, its Washington bureau chief, and Anderson Cooper, the debate’s moderator, decides which videos will be used during the debate.

It’s a digital democracy of citizens who are wired, to be exact. After all, much of America doesn’t have a webcam available and the aptitude to put together a video and post it on the web. So this will probably be a younger generation debate, but that’s good. I really want to hear questions from young people. And when the opportunity arises, I want to see participation in presidential debates by the elderly, by war veterans, by military families, by doctors and farmers and faithful churchgoers. I want to hear honest debate over abortion and embryonic stem cell technology, and not talking points. Or vitriol. That’s why they have to careful with all the YouTube submissions.

And why this particular debate does have its critics.

Ian Bogost, assistant professor of digital media at Georgia Tech, calls the debate “superficial” and “overly hyped.”

“First of all, I frankly don’t think we get a deeper understanding of policy on YouTube than we do in the newspaper or TV,” Bogost said.

But how deep an understanding of policy do we really get in the newspaper or on TV? Seriously.

CNN is trying to make the most of this new format….and hoping to avoid the worst.

“This is the first time that online video gets a seat on the table to help elect a president,” Bohrman said, “and we don’t want to let it fall on its face.”

On debate night, a few questions will be directed to specific candidates; many will be directed to everyone. Cooper will guide the candidates.

“All of us — CNN, YouTube, the candidates, the viewers — don’t know what’s going to happen and how it will all play out.” Cooper said. “And that’s not such a bad thing.”

Especially if it’s not as stilted and staged as past debates have been.

We’ll be watching. And if the video questions chosen lean toward a political ideology, we’ll catch that, too. Watch for post-debate analysis. That ought to be interesting.