Web Video has seen yet another first this week: The first YouTube mass uprising.

The Burmese protests, led by Buddhist monks and disseminated worldwide by Web Video, mark the first protest where the medium unquestionably has had a major impact on a political mass revolt.

Political upheaval has always helped showcase new media: the Civil War and the photograph, the Spanish American War and film of Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders, WWII, radio and newsreels, Vietnam and TV -

And now Burma and Web Video.

Notably, Burma had similar uprising in 1988 which received far less coverage. The year after, China’s Tiananmen Square protest received far greater coverage and is seared into our memories -- because of the TV images of the lone protested and the tank.

But Web Video’s radically little “d” democratic dynamics have unquestionably made the 2007 Burma uprising radically different from the 1988 protests.

Notably, the military, in the violent crackdown begun yesterday, began by, among other things, cutting off cell phone service so protesters can no longer send video out of the country.

Check out the Seattle Times interesting article on Web Video’s role in the protests: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003906566_burma27.htm...

To be sure, digital video has been important before -- as in the Ukrainian elections a few years back -- but this is the first YouTube mass revolt.