Obama has “become the media”

Have just been handed a sneak preview of Professor Michael Freedman’s DIVA address to the University of Ulster’s School of Communications. He is a former US Congressional Spokesperson and heads up the Global Media Institute at George Washington University in DC.

Its a great history tour of the communications revolution which draws specifically on the contribution President Obama has made. I’ll post a link to the full speech later but this passage stuck out for me:

Like Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, President Obama is using new media platforms to carry his messages, push his political agenda and – thanks to social networking – initiate and encourage dialogue, not just locally and nationally – but globally. President Obama has over 1.3 million followers on Twitter. He has been building this following for 28-months now – meaning he has successfully transformed a unique campaign tool into one through which, as President, he can communicate directly with a broad constituency about policy issues.

President Obama is following the first rule of politics – define yourself before the opposition has an opportunity to define you. And in addition to working with the media to that end, he has become the media.

The President’s recent speech to the Muslim world in Cairo serves as a good example. My friend and colleague, CBS News White House Correspondent Peter Maer, points out the “high profile” White House strategy to spread Mr. Obama’s message using Facebook, My Space and Twitter. A White House spokesman pointed out that Facebook is the largest social network in the Muslim world with nearly 20-million users.  A State Department program also allowed international callers to register to receive free text messages on the President’s speech in Arabic and other languages. Video of the speech was streamed live on the White House Web site and it was posted on YouTube. The President not only delivered his message to the Muslim world locally in Cairo, he communicated globally by becoming the media.