President Tech-Savvy?
Remember the 2008-2009 Barack Obama? The one who praised Facebook, online fundraising and online organizing for his victory and forced the National Security Agency to build a super-deluxe secret security system for the official POTUS BlackBerry?
Either the 2010 Obama has done a 360 on his tech-love, or the most transparent administration evah was lying about its integration of technology and social media. Per The Guardian:
Yesterday however, the president admitted he could not operate an iPod or iPad, as he warned the students against becoming distracted by technology when they are already graduating “at a time of great difficulty for America, and for the world”.
“With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations – none of which I know how to work – information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.
“All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.”
Ironically, David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, was in Richmond to discuss the integration of the 2008 campaign with technology. The very same weekend Obama revealed his Luddite side, Plouffe told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “…the use of technology to communicate through online and social media was ‘the heartbeat and engine’ of Obama’s groundbreaking and historic 2008 run for the White House.”
Which was it? Does Obama suddenly have technology amnesia or did the campaign cleverly hide Obama’s ignorance by feeding him the right talking points through the help of his BFFs–the Teleprompter and CrackBerry? The campaign did nimbly use Facebook and online fundraising (their use of Twitter frankly sucked), but time is proving that these areas were further down the campaign totem pole than previously believed.
If the 2008 Obama campaign viewed technology as a lower-tier activity, that’s fine. Plenty of campaigns, particularly on the right, have used digital media from the candidate on down. We’re no longer arguing the legitimacy of engaging online. However, if Obama is a techno-phobe, and evidence points that way, he is most definitely not the first Tech President.
As soon as I heard Obama’s comments, I remembered his 2009 admission that he had never used Twitter before. While answering a student’s question in China, he said:
“I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access.”
In order to be the true first Tech President, the candidate should personally employ technology to spread his or her message and connect with supporters. Given that there are a number of candidates in 2010 races running their own Facebook profiles and tweeting, this should be expected from a presidential contender. It is absolute hypocrisy to award Obama this designation when he clearly has an axe to grind with the technology that got him to the White House.
While the Obama campaign obviously misled the American people about the importance of technology, Plouffe’s statements he made in Richmond are accurate:
Plouffe said the campaign was built using the Internet to engage voters in volunteering, contributing money and “sharing the message” amongst themselves. Connecting these people — not only to the campaign but to each other — helped them build trust with prospective voters they engaged both online and face-to-face.
“There is a lack of trust — in government, in business leaders, in academic leaders, even in faith leaders,” Plouffe said. But, he said, “People trust each other.”
Now, in the future, those grass-roots campaigners will be equipped with interactive mobile devices that allow them to pull down voter lists, videos and the latest campaign information to help make the case for their candidates.
The keys to success will be making campaigns more accessible, providing fast responses and striving to not appear slick.
It is possible to have technology as a focal point without the candidate being directly involved. However, they appear to have blatantly lied about being authentic. Either Obama was involved with the use of technology or he wasn’t. It’s time to put the “Obama is so tech-savvy!” myth to rest and admit to the sleight of hand. Perhaps Plouffe should remember his own advice:
“You’ve got to be authentic. People are looking for authenticity,” Plouffe said. “They are hungering for it.”
H/T TechRepublican
4 Comments
If someone wrote a post like this about Sarah Palin, you’d go ballistic. I’m a pretty adept tech person, and I have a hard time figuring out how to dial an iPhone if the keypad isn’t already up, and other Mac technologies are a big transition for me, because I’m a PC girl. I’m sure, that, like me, there are plenty of Americans who haven’t ever used a gaming system, but could figure it out. Obama has had 20+ communications people (I’m guessing that’s a huge underestimate too) working for him since Twitter went huge a couple years ago, and as a comm person, you know that staff wants control of that message – so that a tweet with an unfortunate spelling error doesn’t get blown out of proportion by the world media. A person can also be supportive of a policy or an ideal – and be heralded as it’s champion without actually being able to DO it themselves. (Think: a Senator being a champion for cancer patients who was never an oncologist.)
If you’re going to vent and rant about the left making hay out of a blade of grass, you should lead by example. You’re smart enough to be making the big arguments. It’s why people like to read you.
Not necessarily Heather. Have you seen any posts about Palin recently? Also, for the record, I’ve criticized Palin’s use of technology before. She’s mastered tweeting and Facebook notes but generally has a terrible online footprint.
While I’m opposed to Obama on virtually all policy issues, I’ll call out anyone who hypocritically uses new media. I would hope as a fellow communications professional, you could get beyond partisan defense of a candidate and agree with my point about the importance of authenticity and transparency.
This isn’t Obama’s first attack on technology. He’s constantly berating bloggers and new media. It’s absolute hypocrisy to be billed as a tech-friendly president who gives Queen Elizabeth an iPod with his speeches on it and then attacks technology in a commencement speech. This isn’t not understanding how to use technology, and stumbling to pull up the keyboard on an iPhone. Obama dislikes of what technology brings about in modern society and indicates that he prefers traditional media that can be centrally controlled through DC and the good ‘ol boy network as it was prior to Clinton’s second administration.
Part of new media is 100% transparency and authenticity as Plouffe said. It’s perfectly fine for a campaign to do those activities, but they made it seem as though Obama was directly behind them. There are too many honest candidates out there tweeting and writing blog posts for this type of cover to continue. It’s time for candidates to be forthcoming with their social media use.
As a communications person, you should also recognize that the message can no longer be controlled and transparency is key above everything else. You’re smart enough to understand that argument, too. If you are still in the “control the message camp,” you shouldn’t be engaging online to begin with. The minute you send the first tweet or create a Facebook profile, you lose control. You can still balance your image and manage it, but you cannot in any way completely control it.
Obama speaks out of both sides of his mouth regarding technology. He’s either for it or opposed to it. His actions and campaign tactics would imply that he’s for it, yet these comments (and previous ones) definitely put him in the Luddite column. When you use technology to win a seat, you have to embrace everything that comes with it. That means understanding bloggers and social media will criticize you and present a 24/7 attack machine that double-checks every sound bite and press release for accuracy and honesty. Obama can’t have it both ways.
Absolutely fair enough. Re-reading and focusing on the transparency message gives me a bunch to think about in how we use new media in more professional spheres.
There’s a lot of sarcasm in my post, but engaging online isn’t just about employing emerging tactics. It requires a complete change in perspective from organizations. You can’t use one without ramifications from the other.
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