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When the White House Joined Facebook

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Obama’s New Media Director explains what he received from the Bush administration..

It was time to visit the most powerful center in the world; the White House, like a modern Rome, of the first African-American President. Intense body searches, marble stairs and an imposing room with wooden touches and portraits of “our Nation’s Fathers.”

Our appointment, always on the topic of Social Networks and politics, is with Obama’s New Media director. A close partner to a President so involved in these, similar to our own (G.A.P.) President – and who took advantage of these during his 2008 campaign, leaving the old-fashioned duo of McCain and Palin behind.

Macon Philips is barely 40 years of age. He explains that “our goal is to achieve maximum transparency and to bring citizens close to the White House and to the President. To give to the citizens the chance to shape politics, and for the President’s message to reach them as quickly as possible.”

What was the secret behind Obama’s successful internet campaign? “The fact that we took a chance on young people. We used regular people to transmit our message,” says Macon Philips and adds: “However, this entire thing worked because we had a very strong candidate, who inspired people and who as a former community organizer knew how important was for grassroot movements to be created. So we just used these Media to transmit his message.”

With this and that, Robert Gibs, the White House spokesperson was ‘forced’ to open a Twitter and Facebook account in order to inform journalists. I wonder if this emphasis on Social Networks implies a down-scaling of the traditional media. “No,” says Macon Philips and stresses that “Mass Media continue to play a huge role and journalists themselves use Social Networks to get informed by us.”

“More and more people use these, we chat through Facebook and thousands of people express their opinions. We also send our messages through Twitter, and our most recent example is the Health care reform, with thousands of talks where we explain what is valid and what is not. Or even specialized discussions on how for example health care can affect owners of small businesses.”

All this results in a huge work load. So I asked Macon Philips how many people work on that field in the White House. The answer which is on the video that follows was that “eight of us work here but there are many outside the White House who also work on that.” And to a complimentary question on whether the White House during Bush’s administration was using Twitter and Facebook the answer was the anticipated one: Bush had none of these, Obama and his team joined on January 2009…

You can watch Athens Voice’s question to the White House’s New Media guy bellow:
Obama’s New Media Director explains what he received from the Bush administration..
It was time to visit the most powerful center in the world; the White House, like a modern Rome, of the first African-American President. Intense body searches, marble stairs and an imposing room with wooden touches and portraits of “our Nation’s Fathers.”
Our appointment, always on the topic of Social Networks and politics, is with Obama’s New Media director. A close partner to a President so involved in these, similar to our own (G.A.P.) President – and who took advantage of these during his 2008 campaign, leaving the old-fashioned duo of McCain and Palin behind.
Macon Philips is barely 40 years of age. He explains that “our goal is to achieve maximum transparency and to bring citizens close to the White House and to the President. To give to the citizens the chance to shape politics, and for the President’s message to reach them as quickly as possible.”
What was the secret behind Obama’s successful internet campaign? “The fact that we took a chance on young people. We used regular people to transmit our message,” says Macon Philips and adds: “However, this entire thing worked because we had a very strong candidate, who inspired people and who as a former community organizer knew how important was for grassroot movements to be created. So we just used these Media to transmit his message.”
With this and that, Robert Gibs, the White House spokesperson was ‘forced’ to open a Twitter and Facebook account in order to inform journalists. I wonder if this emphasis on Social Networks implies a down-scaling of the traditional media. “No,” says Macon Philips and stresses that “Mass Media continue to play a huge role and journalists themselves use Social Networks to get informed by us.”
“More and more people use these, we chat through Facebook and thousands of people express their opinions. We also send our messages through Twitter, and our most recent example is the Health care reform, with thousands of talks where we explain what is valid and what is not. Or even specialized discussions on how for example health care can affect owners of small businesses.”
All this results in a huge work load. So I asked Macon Philips how many people work on that field in the White House. The answer which is on the video that follows was that “eight of us work here but there are many outside the White House who also work on that.” And to a complimentary question on whether the White House during Bush’s administration was using Twitter and Facebook the answer was the anticipated one: Bush had none of these, Obama and his team joined on January 2009…
You can watch Athens Voice’s question to the White House’s New Media guy bellow: