Obama Makes a Point of Speaking of the People, to the People

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Obama Makes a Point of Speaking of the People, to the People
By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 14, 2008; A05

In the 26 years since the weekly radio address became a modern White House staple, presidents have often treated the speech to the nation as a task to be endured rather than an opportunity. Not so with President-elect Barack Obama, who has been using his four minutes of weekend airtime not only to speak directly to the American people, but also to create news....Dan Pfeiffer, the incoming White House deputy communications director, said Obama will continue to use the addresses "to make significant news." That contrasts sharply with President Bush, who presented little policy or political perspective in his radio addresses....

The incoming president's approach to the address also differs in how content is presented, by marrying the 100-year-old technology of radio to 21st-century tools: The speech is still beamed out to radio stations nationwide on Saturday mornings, but now it is also recorded for digital video and audio downloads from YouTube, iTunes and the like, so people can access it whenever and wherever they want.

"One of the fundamental precepts of our campaign was to use the new technology to reinvigorate our democracy. That's a commitment we will bring to this administration," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said.

That strategy speaks to a broader revolution of how Obama will communicate with the American public, said Doug Sosnik, who was a senior aide in the Clinton White House. "Once a decade or two, a president comes in and redefines how the White House communicates," Sosnik said. He noted that President Ronald Reagan, who introduced the weekly radio address in 1982, also perfected the political power of television broadcasts. That built on the concepts first grasped by John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s, while President Bill Clinton took it a step further by focusing on cable and satellite television. "The mainframe for this White House will be the Internet, not TV," Sosnik added. "They will cater to TV. And it will be integrated into the overall digital strategy. But it's not going to be the end-all."...

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"Obama will be more directly connected to millions of Americans than any president who has come before him, and he will be able to communicate directly to people using the social networking and Web-based tools such as YouTube that his campaign mastered," (Joe) Trippi said. "Obama's could become the most powerful presidency that we have ever seen."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/13/AR2008121301726_pf.html

[Clio the Leo]

1. One of my greatest memories will be.....

.... watching one of his first Youtube addresses on my iPhone with my boss in the breakroom .... it was either him or One Life to Live.

I think we made the better choice.

"Isn't this amazing? I have this little square thing I carry everywhere I go and I can just push a button and the President is speaking to us! Welcome to the 21st Century!"