Obama is the first “Social Media President”. He was the first to go live on Facebook from the Oval Office, the first to have a Twitter handle, a SnapChat account, and the first to engage with the public through YouTube.
As each presidential term ends, the White House staff get to work preserving documents to create public records. This time, they need to factor in social media. The last eight years have seen incredible changes to the way we consume and interact with media and organisations.
Obama’s administration embraced these changes and utilised the digital landscape to communicate with the American people in new and dynamic ways. Earlier this year the White House even announced that official letters could be submitted through Facebook Messenger!
Archiving eight years of social media content is no small feat and the White House recently published an article about how they plan to record and preserve the online history moving forward. They describe the digital infrastructure of the Obama administration as; “an asset not just for the next president but for all future presidents to build off of. The archive belongs to the American people."
They’ve been working with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to ensure the archive is facilitated correctly:
- Preserving material across all social channels, “just as previous administrations have done with records ranging from handwritten notes to faxes to emails.”
- They are working to ensure materials are accessible on the platforms where they were created on, allowing for real-time access.
- They are working to ensure that the next president and administration – regardless of party – can use and develop the digital assets to further engage with the American people.
With many Australian politicians and government organisations using social media channels, will this influence them to start thinking more about their digital-born records?
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