The front page of yesterday’s Globe and Mail contained an article titled “Obama takes charge with economic plan, ushering in era of President 2.0″ that intrigued me more for what it said about how US president-elect Barack Obama plans to use New Media to communicate directly with the public than what it said about his $400 billion economic plans for a huge infrastructure program.
As John Ibbitson reported:
“Demonstrating that he is already effectively the president, Barack Obama unveiled on the weekend the most ambitious infrastructure program since Dwight Eisenhower created the interstate highway system in the 1950s.
But it’s not just what the president-elect said. It’s how he said it – via the Internet. Mr. Obama is revolutionizing presidential communication and public consultation. He is exploiting the Web to mobilize and broaden his army of admirers, in order to validate his planned reforms.
“Barack Obama will reinvent the American presidency,” Simon Rosenberg, president of the liberal think tank NDN, predicted in an interview. “He is going to change the relationship of the American people to their president, and he will change the relationship of the people of the world to the American president. Because these tools are global in nature.”
So the US president-elect who was frequently photographed glued to his Blackberry, and who used the Internet and social networking sites more effectively during the nomination and election campaigns than any other politician to date, will continue to pioneer using New Media.
The article goes on to state, “The president-elect unveiled the stimulus package on http://www.change.gov, the presidential-transition website. For decades, presidents have addressed the nation weekly by radio. Mr. Obama has expanded the format to include video, released via the Internet.
Change.gov also contains briefing documents delivered to Mr. Obama’s transition team by outside organizations. Members of the public are encouraged to read the documents and post their own comments and suggestions. There is no reason Canadians couldn’t join in.
“Transparency is the process that leads to real change,” explains transition-team spokesman Michael Strautmanis on a video explaining the new program. “And transparency is the process by which people will have confidence that things are really going to be different, that they will have that seat at the table.”
This broad public consultation is already powering discussions on health-care reform. Mr. Obama has made it clear that he is not prepared to postpone expanding access to public health care. Indeed, he sees that expansion as a key part of his economic stimulus package.
Change.gov encourages readers to post comments on health-care reform, to rate the comments of other posters and to establish online communities to put forward and discuss proposals. The process will culminate in a series of actual face-to-face meetings organized by the transition team and by citizens themselves during the last two weeks of December.
The Obama team used exactly these tactics to create, expand and mobilize its netroots supporters during the primary and election campaigns. In its final filing, the Obama campaign revealed late last week that it had raised, in total, $750-million, including $104-million after Oct. 15, allowing Mr. Obama to outspend his rival, Republican nominee John McCain, by more than two-to-one during the final month of the campaign.
It is clear that the Obama White House will continue and expand this electronic outreach to communicate with its base and with the broader public.
So is this really the advent of the dot.com presidency, powered by genuine online public consultation or is it just a political marketing tool? No one really knows.
Mr. Rosenberg is enthusiastic, however. Regardless of how online public consultation works or doesn’t work, he believes the new media “lower the barrier for entry of the average person into politics. This is key. It is much easier now for the average person to be informed, to be engaged, to participate, to feed back, to take action.”
“We don’t know exactly how this is going to play out,” he acknowledges. “What we do know is that using these tools to speak to the American people in more meaningful ways was the core of how Barack Obama got elected. And it will be central to his presidency. And I think you’re going to see leaders around the world try to emulate him very quickly.”
I found the implications of this Globe and Mail article fascinating. We already know that the key to New Media is less structure, less formality, more personalization, more authenticity, more dialogue. We’re already struggling for terms and definitions. What is now called “New Media” is quickly become established media, the go-to source and the first choice for obtaining news and information by increasing numbers of people.
With the leader of what is still the most powerful nation on earth tapping into New Media’s capabilities, we will be sure to see major effects on all spheres of media and publishing.
-Posted by Wendy Elaine Nelles
