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Obama to deliver Fireside Chats via YouTube
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by Tina Kells | November 17, 2008 at 01:19 pm
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President-elect Barack Obama is one very web savvy world leader and as the U.S. heads into what could be the Great Depression 2.0 it is no coincidence that Web 2.0 played a significant role in his rise to power. Following in the footsteps of FDR, the Great Depression era president, Obama will hold Fireside Chats to reassure and inspire Americans during the current financial crisis.
Obama posted campaign videos to YouTube as part of his election strategy and it worked. He got the lions share of the youth vote and this helped him secure his place in the Oval Office. Obama now plans to use YouTube to bring a Depression era born presidential tradition into the 21st century.
During the Great Depression FDR began the tradition of the President's Fireside Chat, giving radio addresses to reassure U.S. citizens that the nation would return to prosperity. FDR inspired financially distressed citizens to hold true to the American dream and in doing so helped the nation emerge from the Great Depression to become a global super power.
Obama is looking to continue that tradition as he leads America through another severe financial crisis and YouTube will be his preferred method of delivering his Fireside Chats to the masses.
Barack Obama is already being called the YouTube President because of the 1,800 YouTube videos that helped propel him to win the election and have been watched more than 110 million times. So it seems fitting that Obama will continue to use YouTube to get his message out once he takes office. The weekly radio address that every president has done since FDR will be videotaped and put onto YouTube.
These “fireside chats” were started by FDR during the Depression as a way to reassure Americans that everything was going to be all right. Now Obama will have some of his own reassuring to do as we grapple with the current economic crisis.
The Presidential radio address is somewhat of an anachronism that Obama hopes to reinvigorate by bringing his message on-demand to people’s computers. So the weekly chat is skipping TV entirely and going straight from radio to YouTube. The address (which will still be broadcast over the radio) is usually only about four minutes long, a perfect length for YouTube. The videos will be posted on Obama's Change.gov website, as well as its dedicated YouTube channel. I wonder if they will ever turn comments on.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 14:52 on November 17th, 2008
Very interesting find, Tina. An intriguing change in methods of communication between the President and the people.
at 14:31 on November 18th, 2008
Borrowing some good PR moves. I'm surprised more people don't use youtube etc. for that reason.