Another Pass at Africa
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, July 14 2009
The White House's new media operation has been doing something very well that doesn't often get noticed, and that's completing the circle on their experiments in outreach. Case in point: Obama sat down recently to record responses to three of the hundreds of notes from Africans that poured in through SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and other channels during his trip to Ghana. Worth noting is that the bright idea -- Hey! Let's make it so that anyone in Africa can text the president of the United States! -- isn't automagically paired with the fact that as White House staff you get a chunk of the president's afternoon to do follow-up. It's nice to see that level of buy-in at the highest levels, and a recognition that this is less about experimentation than it is about engagement. (As well as an understanding that parachuting the American president into the sub-Sahara once every four years does not a U.S-Africa relationship make.)
In this video, a sleepy-looking globetrotting president answers three questions as selected by African journalists working in DC: What to do about Africa's brain drain? Woo expats back with opportunities secured by good governance -- i.e. kill the bribe culture, Why Ghana? Its sustaining democracy makes it "superior", and how to grow trade between Africa and the U.S. Put the focus on creating capacity.
That said, it's a mistake to look at these engagements as anything resembling true press outreach. These aren't exactly hard ball questions, and you'll notice that the Internet never gets a follow-up. But by narrowcasting out answers on niche topics, the Obama White House is demonstrating a commitment to using digital tools to do more than just put on a show.