Both Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have recently made use of webcasts to send key messages about their political aspiration. Matt Tyrnauer takes a look at this increasing trend for Vanity Fair, by specifically analyzing Clinton, Obama and John Edwards’s use of this medium.

In this era, campaign managers seek to spread their messages by building communities and speaking directly to supporters through podcasts and e-mail, or what the Edwards campaign calls “webisodes.” If these webisodes get picked up on TV news, all the better. The reason Edwards posted his announcement on YouTube was to make it look less propagandistic and more spontaneous and organic.

Praise has been lavished on Obama and Edwards for their no-frills approach.

Clinton, on the other hand, has been given mixed reviews for her Web video, “I’m In,” which was produced by longtime Clinton media consultant Mandy Grunwald.