On election night, shortly after Obama's acceptance speech, Tom Brokaw on NBC remarked that Barack Obama is the first truly postmodern President. Because the term "postmodern" can mean so many things, it's important to place Brokaw's statement in context. He really meant that Obama was the first truly global President, with an African father and an American mother and a childhood spent in Indonesia. Yet the label "postmodern" can extend beyond Obama's global upbringing, and can most certainly include Obama's use of technology. Many are noticing Obama's unique use (or at least new to the Presidency) of technology:
1) Many noted the hullaballoo over Obama's insistence that he keep his blackberry. The Guardian's comments about the concerns of keeping his blackberry:
But the main concerns are often more about political responsibility than
personal safety, as a result of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which requires that documents retained by the White House must be released to the public... However loopholes in the system could mean that Obama - who has said "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency" – would be able to continue using the device for personal messages that did not impact the presidency.
2) Obama relies too much on teleprompters and the mainstream media is mostly mum about it. For as much as George W. Bush got ridiculed for being a poor public speaker, it seems the only difference between he and Obama is that Obama can read a teleprompter with more spirit. A recent example of his incoherence when the teleprompter goes out:
For more of the many examples of Obama's flubs when the teleprompter goes out, go here
3) All Obama all the time on the television. This part has many facets and so I have to resort to outline form.
A) Obama was the first sitting President to go on Leno. Here is just one of thousands of links. I was tempted to post the video, but you can find it so easily on youtube. In sum, this was a disaster. But his it wasn't his comments that bothered me as much as it was the fact that a sitting President was answering questions while the person in authority was behind the desk. There's a reason sitting Presidents don't do this.B) He has given several primetime television news conferences.
C) He showed up on 60 Minutes and while many thought he was grilled by Steve Croft, I still thought Croft lobbed up a bunch of softballs. With Obama's lightheartedness, Croft was led to ask "Are you punch drunk?"
D) He has appeared several times to media outlets in the Middle East (more on this tomorrow).
He has appeared so much on television that the media critic at Time, James Poniewozik, is wondering if he's doing too much tv. Poniewozik isn't convinced that he is, but he most certainly is. When you are so repetitively misunderstood, it's best to lay off the video appearances.
4) Obama is interacting with the American people via internet.
US President Barack Obama has answered questions submitted to the White
House website by members of the public. The "Internet Town Hall" was
streamed live on the website. More than 100,000 questions, on subjects
ranging from the economy to the legalisation of marijuana, were sent in for
consideration. The event is the latest in a series of recent public appearances made by Mr Obama as he seeks to promote his plans to kick-start the US economy.
Someone forget to tell me how the legalization of marijuana will help kick-start the economy. But one could go on the same rant about healthcare and numerous other elements in Obama's projected budget.
Conclusion: With that exhaustive list, Obama is clearly establishing himself in a new era of the Presidency. While using these various communication media he is communicating to the masses and acting like "one of us," he is also contributing to the erosion of the value of communication and meaning in language (as I discussed yesterday). As long as he looks the way he is trying to project, it doesn't matter as much what he says. So much of his efforts seem to endorse his image while it seems that little communicative effort is being made to promote the justness of his positions (or the perceived justness of his positions- of course not all Americans agree with his policies). How else does it happen that people disagree with his policies but approve of him? (See my earlier post on this subject).
Obama's overuse of technology, in sum, calls his judgment into question. He's not being judicious with words, influence, or complex issues of public policy.
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2 comments:
And some say that G-dub was on the opposite end of that spectrum. Do you think there can (should?) be a happy medium of Presidential use of technology and exposure to the people?
Perhaps so. It's a good question to ask. On one hand, it's good that the President tries and connects with the people. On the other hand, we've elected him already- go and govern. You can stop campaigning now. Maybe he should try and sell his agenda, but it doesn't seem like he's doing much of that. He's just exposing us to his face. Maybe he should write more columns for magazines and newspapers like he's done for Time before. But even his last column was on "volunteering" and wasn't very substantive.
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