White House Joins Facebook, MySpace, Twitter

theodp writes "The official White House Blog called the move WhiteHouse 2.0 as the Obama administration unveiled its membership in a trio of the social-networking leaders: Facebook (157,606 fans and counting), MySpace (174,817 friends and counting) and Twitter (34,612 followers and counting)."

Comments

I've been watching this for a while

[mc1138]

The Obama administration is just leveraging all the tools they have available. More people can be reached via the web than anywhere else. I guess the only reason this is really news is that its an outbreak of common sense for a government agency to use these tools. I'm hoping it will allow for more transparency, but then again its just as easy to lie and fudge numbers online as it is through traditional media outlets.

Re:I've been watching this for a while

[eln]

It may be partially about transparency in government, but it's much more about the perpetual campaign season. These days, politicians are always campaigning. The new mantra is it's never too early to start campaigning for the next race.

The Obama administration will use these tools to release a constant stream of positive spin. In the old days, Presidents had to rely on weekly radio addresses that no one listened to, daily press briefings that no one listened to, and press conferences that either happened too infrequently to sustain a message or so frequently that people got sick of them.

Now, with these services, the administration has the opportunity to campaign continuously in a low-key and less intrusive way that will, they hope, be more effective. Time will tell how well it works.

Re:I've been watching this for a while

[eln]

Sure, but the active campaigning was usually reserved for the campaign season, meaning the several months before an election. The rest of the time was spent governing, albeit doing so in a way that would play well with the electorate come campaign time.

Now, it's all about "managing the message" and staying in campaign mode all the time. It's not about doing things that will "play well in Peoria", it's about constantly reinforcing the message that whatever it is you're doing is good for the people. It's the difference between doing the people's work and making sure the people think whatever it is you're doing is the people's work.

Ah

[fulldecent]

How interesting. All these sites, unlike slashdot, allow you to state your friends; not foes.

Re:Is it possible to have enemys on facebook?

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess I should prep myself for the poor mods ;) I think my excellent karma can take it though

Around here, just saying that pretty much guarantees you will be modded up to +5.

Re:Hopefully....

[StreetStealth]

Only in Hollywood.

I don't think the Commander in Chief or anyone in his cabinet will touch these once over the next four years.

This is almost certainly handled by the Office of the White House Press Secretary, and I would imagine there are several staffers who will do the actual writing before passing it by the Secretary himself for approval.

The Press Secretary is probably the only cabinet member who will even have this on his mind.

Re:More communication != more accountability.

[dyingtolive]

If the Whitehouse is putting more down in writing, on the Internet where it can easily be archived and searched through, will this lead to greater scrutiny from the public? Will they be more likely to be called on their backtracking?

Or, more likely, will they just make sure to never say anything of substance?

It doesn't really matter if they're scrutinized or called on for their backtracking. There are entire TV shows (Daily Show) dedicated to pointing stuff like that out. I remember watching an episode where they were talking about the bailouts and showing footage of congressmen talking about how good the bailouts were going to be and then cutting to another clip of the same person talking about how much they were against the bailouts and never supported them to begin with. People chuckle about it, but no one really cares. Its sad that it turned out like that, but short of forcing open revolt and exile, I don't know what can be done. Chances are the next bunch would be just as bad as the current, if not worse.