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Article Excerpt
The advent of the Internet has given rise to a challenging new era in presidential communication. Digital technology has had profound implications for the ways in which the White House deals with citizens, elites, journalists, and global actors. The technological revolution in communication comes at a time when presidents have increased their public appearances as well as the scope of their policy initiatives (Kumar 2007). As presidents need to enlist the media to achieve their policy and governing goals (Cook 2005), the White House has incorporated Internet strategies into its increasingly complex communications plans. The Internet also has implications for the organizational arrangements and structure of communication across the executive branch. The accountability, task specialization, and jurisdiction of departments and agencies is being reconsidered as the information base of the bureaucracy becomes increasingly Internet-centric (Fountain 2002).
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as the first new media era chief executives, have been pioneers in the development of strategies for governing with digital communication. With no established blueprints, their efforts have combined deliberate planning with trial and error. While Clinton and Bush publicly avowed to use new communication technologies and touted their benefits upon taking office, both faced some difficulties when embracing new media for presidential communication. The expectation of transparency and interactivity associated with the Internet must be balanced against the need to protect national security and the desire to achieve political and policy goals. The speed with which news is disseminated in the new media era makes it more difficult for presidents to control the flow of information which can force rapid responses in lieu of careful deliberations. As more of their words and actions are archived online, presidential administrations are held to higher standards of accountability. They are subject to intense public and press scrutiny that can quickly devolve into gotcha journalism and negative publicity.
The Clinton administration's pathbreaking online efforts reflect the first generation of Internet technology and applications. The development of the White House Web site added a notable new dimension to presidential communication and information sharing. Still, the Clinton era applications were limited in terms of interactivity, interconnectivity, scope of content, and the exhibition of material via a range of audio and visual media. The evolution of the next generation of Internet applications, commonly known as Web 2.0, took place during Bush's term in office. Web 2.0 encompasses applications that use the existing architecture of the Internet to create a culture of participation through the creative development of online communities, social networks, and content-sharing sites (O'Reilly 2005). Web 2.0 and the development of increasingly sophisticated public communication tools raise intriguing possibilities for presidential communication.
This article will explore the ways in which presidential communication has evolved in response to new media. In particular, it will examine how the White House has used the Internet to reach out to the public, policy makers, and journalists in a communications environment characterized by continually shifting parameters. We address the question: How has presidential communication developed in the Internet age?
Innovations in presidential communication in the new media era have stemmed largely from campaign media experiences. The White House Web site, which was developed in the aftermath of the 1992 campaign, has become the primary showcase for the presidency online. It provides us with an opportunity to explore the evolution of White House Internet communication over time. We also will examine the ways in which the executive branch has (and has not) adopted Internet innovations, such as Web 2.0 applications like video sharing and social networking sites, to presidential communication. Finally, we will speculate about what the future might hold for presidential administrations and their use of the Internet. In exploring these issues, we will touch upon the ways in which the White House is employing Internet-based communications to share information internally among government agencies and officials.
The relationship of the White House to the new media environment is complex and in some ways contradictory. Presidential administrations seeking to generate positive publicity for their programs and policies see the potential in new media to get their message out on their own terms. Realistically, however, the White House has approached new media with some trepidation and reserve. Tactics that may be effective in other contexts, such as political campaigns, are not necessarily appropriate for governing and may even backfire. The president's national constituency, the breath of executive branch leadership responsibilities, and the intensity of the spotlight shining on the office render the adaptation of Internet media strategies more difficult than for other government entities. In addition, managing information in a media environment that is dynamic and unstable is no easy task. The range and sophistication of new media options expanded substantially from January 1993 when Bill Clinton took office to when George W. Bush will leave the White House in January 2009, creating new opportunities as well as challenges. There were well under 100,000 Web sites in 1994 when the Clinton administration launched the White House site. The number of sites had grown to nearly 2.9 million in 2000 (O'Neill, Lavoie, and Bennett 2003). By the start of Bush's second term in 2005, the number of indexable Web pages stood at 11.5 billion (Gulli and Signorini 2005).
New media is a term that encompasses a wide range of communication options that fall along a rough continuum. At one end are communications platforms based on old technologies that have taken on new political roles, such as radio and television talk programs, tabloids, and television news magazines. In the middle of the spectrum are mixed or hybrid media that combine elements of traditional media with newer technologies. These include 24-hour cable news programs and the Internet sites of newspapers and magazines. On the far end of the spectrum are new media that have developed as a result of new technology that has been put to novel political uses (Davis and Owen 1999). Internet applications, such as social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, blogs, videosharing sites including YouTube, and podcasts fall into this category.
The sources and content of communication about the president have changed in the new media era. The amount of coverage devoted to the presidency by mainstream media, particularly newspapers and network television news, has declined significantly and become more negative in tone (Cohen 2008). Policy content has been supplanted to some extent by soft news focusing on human interest and scandal (Baum 2002). Media organizations have suffered significant cuts to their budgets, resulting in less actual news reporting and greater commentary by journalists. At the same time, presidents have become a frequent topic of new media discourse which has been integral to the dissemination of sensational infotainment-style stories and rumors (Kurtz 1998; Owen 2000). Bloggers, citizen journalists, and producers of online videos have joined professional reporters in creating content that stimulates interest and discussion about presidential administrations. While the quality and veracity of this content can be questionable, presidents increasingly find themselves responding to messages originating in new media.
Presidents also find themselves dealing with mainstream media stories...
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