Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
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hide captionA screen grab from last year's "enhanced State of the Union," which is also available Tuesday on WhiteHouse.gov.
Nathan Yau/Flowing Data
A screen grab from last year's "enhanced State of the Union," which is also available Tuesday on WhiteHouse.gov.
Nathan Yau/Flowing Data
Viewership is declining. Washington seems increasingly dysfunctional and irrelevant to the daily lives of Americans. The presidency isn't the bully pulpit it used to be.
In an age of social media and atomized audiences, the annual State of the Union speech is beginning to look like a stuffy relic from a bygone era.
It's an institution in need of a makeover, which is precisely what the White House intends to do Tuesday night.
An administration noted for its Twitter town halls, Google+ hangouts and a constantly-fed White House Instagram account has already launched a wide-ranging social media offensive surrounding the State of the Union that aims to control the message and create an experience that is unlike any address before it.
Whether or not the effort succeeds, it represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of the speech.
"Influencing the lateral conversation on social media around the speech matters nearly as much as the speech itself," says Eli Pariser, one of the co-founders of the viral news startup Upworthy and former executive director of MoveOn.org. "It used to be the case that a President mainly needed to worry about courting a few TV pundits and newspaper columnists — but that matters less than it used to, and the organic online conversation matters a lot more."
Heightening the "lateral" experience of the constitutionally-mandated speech is the administration's big — and obvious — push in advance of Tuesday's address. The president's chief of staff kicked things off last week with a web video, previewing ways users can get involved. The administration's flooding Twitter using the hashtag #InsideSOTU, and speechwriter Cody Keenan a White House spokesman told Bloomberg. [Our NPR graphics team took a closer look at all those charts to review their accuracy.]
And the digital push will continue beyond tonight's speech. The administration is already trying to gin up support for its "Big Block of Cheese Day" — a nod to President Andrew Jackson's 1837 White House, when he hauled in a 1,400 pound block of cheddar and invited anyone to come meet with him and other administration staff. (Fictional President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet of The West Wing also held two of these "Big Block of Cheese Days" during his TV presidency.)
There's no way the confab could happen in the physical world, so the administration is holding it online Wednesday. As for the president, he's going on the customary post-SOTU road trip to sell his policy ideas — but this time, he's aiming to personalize the experience. A "virtual road trip" Google + Hangout is scheduled so individualss can call in and ask him a question.
"He wants everybody to participate but he also wants to control the message," Smith says. "Because this is a big year. The president has a lot of initiatives on the table. He's gotta figure out a way to get people back."
