Robert Bluey, Heritage Foundation: The Citizentube Interview

Two words you might not usually associate with YouTube are "think tank". And yet over the last several months, we've seen a wave of activity on the site from think tanks—liberal, conservative, and non-partisan—across the country. From the Aspen Institute to the Carnegie Council to American Solutions, think tanks are increasingly using YouTube as a means of disseminating their positions on public policy to a global audience. And perhaps no think tank is using YouTube more effectively than the Heritage Foundation.

Dedicated to the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and traditional American Values, the Heritage Foundation has been posting videos on YouTube for nearly two years. Within that time, they've established themselves as one of the leading and most innovative think tanks on YouTube—and with over 300 videos on their YouTube channel, certainly one of the most prolific. Whether criticizing the Gang of 10 Energy Bill, or dispelling five misconceptions about the national debt, their videos succeed in making their policy analysis quick, easy to understand, and relevant to the news of the day.

Robert Bluey, director of the Heritage's Center for Media & Public Policy and editor of heritage.org, recently took time to answers some questions for Citizentube. Bluey discusses the challenge of making policy videos exciting, the yardsticks of success, and how conservatives can narrow the perceived "Internet gap" in politics: