As we discussed today, in the mid 1800s the White House had its own paper through which it expressed its views. As times change, the mode through the President expresses his views to the people changes. FDR had his fireside chats, and apparently President Obama has a weekly address which is available on whitehouse.gov. What I find interesting in comparing the mode Jackson used in the 1830s, what FDR did in the 1930s and 40s, and what Obama does today, is that until I looked on the White House website to look for something interesting to blog about, I didn't know that these Obama weekly addresses were happening. As far as I knew, the only time Obama addressed the public is when its on the major news networks. Whats interesting about this, is that since it isn't picked up by the major news outlets, there is very little commented on what the President says in these weeks addresses, which makes them completely unimportant, especially compared to the official newspapers in Jackson's times and the fireside chats in FDR's times.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address
In case you wanna see this address by the President.
Or, perhaps the only people paying attention are exactly the people the address is supposed to reach - committed supporters who are pleased to hear the president speak about a subject they care about.
ReplyDeleteObama is not the only elected official to make such speeches. NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg has a weekly radio show, in which he speaks to his constituents. Another thing is that there are so many options available to people that they are not forced to listen to Obama. In the 40's when FDR was speaking in fireside chats, people could choose to listen or not listen. He commanded the radio-waves for that half hour, fifteen minutes whatever it was. A similar situation existed with the Presidents the State of the Union address before cable. All the locals would air the speech and one could choose to watch or not. Nowadays, the locals continue to air the state of the union but those of us with cable are not tethered to the locals and have other options available. Lastly, his speech is not his only means of communication with the general public. He has a twitter and tweets often. People may not hear or see him but they do receive his message one way or another.
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