Obama 2.0: The Look of Direct Democracy
by jharsin, Sun Nov 30, 2008 at 04:13:58 PM EST
Like many people, I am excited about the possibilities for change that the Obama presidency embodies. As in his campaign communication, Obama's transition communication has been cutting edge and fabulous at producing a consistent image. Take, for example, the excitingly accessible transition site his team has produced: change.gov.
Access. This site symbolizes democratic access and community.
First it is simple, a two column structure with nine tabs line the header:home, newsroom, blog, learn, agenda, America Moment, America Serves, Jobs, About. On the home/arrival page, you find yourself staring at and being stared at by Obama, who is poised to address you thanks to Youtube. The newsroom, or press releases from Obama, actually appears on the home page, below the video.
The blog encourages you to "Watch Your Weekly Address now," and true to the participatory genre and thus expectations of blogs, it asks the visitor to "then send us your questions or ideas about how to fix the economy." It sounds right, except you can't post comments. And cynics who have tried to write legislators in the past, will be wary of the sincerity of the suggestion. It will probably be considered like focus group and survey information in order to craft more scientifically messages to mass and niche markets--I mean, uh, voters.






