Fireside Chats for the 21st Century
In the thirties and the forties, during the heights of the Great Depression and World War II, Americans would gather around their radio sets and hear the baritone voice of President Roosevelt. FDR introduced a new phrase into the political lexicon - the fireside chat - where he updated the public on the state of the nation and the war.
Obama was partly elected on the promise of making government more transparent, and on the campaign trail would tell audiences that he would find a way to create the “virtual fireside chat” allowing him to engage in regular dialogues with the American public.
This weekend his campaign claimed to be making a step in that direction by putting the weekly Democratic radio address on YouTube. Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube, told the Washington Post that they expect Obama’s team to create a White House YouTube channel.
The use of YouTube gives the public a window into the presidency, but it’s still a controlled image. What could take this into the realm of real dialogue is if the president-elect were willing to use the internet to dialogue with the American public, a tool that was used during the presidential primay debates sponsored by MTV and MySpace.
Obama could even be sitting next to a “virtual” fireside as he takes questions. Now that’s what I call digital democracy.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
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