Government 2.0

               I was very surprised when I read UltraAyla's post discussing President-Elect Obama's plans of recording his weekly address as a YouTube video that will be posed on his web site Change.gov. This has never been done before and is a great example of how video blogs and the internet in general has become such a big part of our lives. Also, I think this is a great demonstration of how Obama is very connected to the younger generation. One of his main point throughout his campaign for presidency was change and clearly his is changing a few things already

               As I continued to read the responding post to the question posed by UltraAyla, I noticed a lot of people felt that it was unnecessary to do this because most wont even bother watching the videos. However, it is my argument that although most probably wont watch it, some will, even if its only one person. Also, people are much more interested in what is going on with government and the news these days, so maybe people will watch. President Bush's candidacy left a lot of Americans upset with their government and questioning its authenticity. I think having a very open government is exactly what we need in order for Americans to gain back trust in their government. 

              I think the younger generations will be effected the most by this change. Older people don't utilize the internet very much because they didn't grow up with it the way that we did, so it's not an ordinary part of everyday life for them like it is for us. I think this is a great strategy to get younger people more involved in their government. Our generation gets a lot of slack for not being involved and not taking action towards what goes on in this country. By making governmental issues more accessible to us by putting them on a medium that is most used by young people, maybe we will be more involved. Young people don't know what's going on because they would rather watch a dumb reality show about a bunch of idiots then tune into the news. 

            Another advantage to broadcasting his addresses on his web site, is that his words will not be manipulated by a news forums. Channels like Fox are known to be very right winged conservative and often report news from their point of view. In this case, people can watch the videos and make their own judgements and reach their own conclusions about what is going on. 

           In conclusion, I think that what Obama is doing is great. He is continuing to hold true to his words and speeches about change. He truly is taking steps towards a new America, where things are open and transparent. His openness give me great confidence that he will be a good president that will do good things for our country, because he clearly has nothing to hide. GO BARACK!