So this is clear: 2008 presidential hopefuls are jumping on YouTube and other video sites to reach potential voters in the early stages of the campaign season.

John Edwards is on YouTube. Barack Obama has an agreement with the video site Brightcove (see BuzzMachine for more on that) and used the platform to announce his Presidential Exploratory Committee. Of course, within hours of posting the announcement on Brightcove, the video would up on YouTube, anyway.

As for other candidates, there are plenty of YouTube mash-ups, parody videos and more all centered on the 2008 races. The candidates themselves don’t seem to be posting these, but there they are. And some of the videos are bound to influence some votes.

What we know so far, thanks to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, is that a lot of people are turning to the Internet for political information, and the Web has made significant gains on television and newspapers for election news.

Editor & Publisher reported, “The study, released Wednesday, revealed that 69 percent of Americans cited television and 34 percent considered newspapers their leading choices for news; survey respondents could specify their top two. Radio and the Internet each got about 15 percent, while magazines had 2 percent. Even among online users, the Internet was a leading source for only 22 percent. It rises to 35 percent for high-speed Internet users under age 36.”

What’s not clear is how local and regional newspapers plan to use video to enhance their elections coverage in the next 18 months. (If I get enough responses, I’d like to write a column or blog entry on this. Comment below, or, if you don’t want your secrets getting out too early, e-mail me at beth.lawton@naa.org.)