US President Obama is the most social media aware president the US has ever had. Recently he held his town hall chat on Twitter which was aired live for users to ask questions. This session was conducted at the White House and co-ordinated by the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Questions to be asked were chosen by a panel.
The Twitter savvy President started the session by tweeting his own question regarding the measures that would be taken when reducing deficit by cutting some costs and deciding on which investments to retain. Obama answered tweeted questions live and expressed his concerns about not wanting to cause additional economic strife to his citizens but instead focus on what could make America grow as a nation.
A daring tweeter asked Obama what mistakes he feels he made when handling the recent recession. Although he defended his team’s efforts at recovery, he did observe that he should have informed Americans that it would take a while before positive signs could begin to emerge.
Some critics feel that this was a gimmick used by the president to reach young voters directly and by-pass the media. As Andrew Smith, director for the Centre for Politics at the University of Hampshire comments, “It’s helpful to him in that he’s using a new sexy technology, and they also have more control of the questions.”
The president has also used Facebook and YouTube to talk to many other users on those forums about his administrations reviews for the set backs and progress they have made since coming into office.
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