President Obama is taking to Twitter to answer questions from the public on the economy and jobs. The White House said the Twitter town hall is an effort to bypass traditional media outlets and talk to Americans outside of DC.
But don't expect the President to be banging out tweets on his BlackBerry. "He's just answering the questions. He's not typing and tweeting," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. White House staffers will shoehorn the President's responses into 140 characters, the limit for a tweet.
This isn't the first time Obama has used a popular social networking platform to answer questions. Obama answered questions from YouTube users, and the President held a town hall via Facebook in April. This approach gives the White House a chance to connect with young, tech-savvy Americans who are a big part of Obama's base and less likely to get their news via the 6:30 broadcasts or 24-hour news channels.
While the technology being used in the Q&A with the president may be novel, the event will be as tightly controlled as any other press event for the President. Questions from the Twitterverse will be curated by journalists who write primarily about economic issues. Since the most popular trending questions will get priority, the chances of the president being thrown a curveball or even just asked a thoughtful little-considered question is pretty slim. And the setup allows the White House to ignore questions the President would rather not answer: Obama was criticized at the Twitter and Facebook events for ignoring a question on whether he supported legalizing marijuana.
But the event also shows how much the big social media companies have become major players in the news -- both in the way the news it's transmitted and the way it's made.
The town hall will begin at 2 p.m. EST, and you can follow the livestream of the conversation here. Questions for the President can be tweeted with the hashtag "AskObama."
Be sure to be following @blackvoices on Twitter to join the ongoing conversation.
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