Like the Gods of Ancient Greece, every president has had his epithet. Back around 1980, an Arkansas Newspaper dubbed Bill Clinton “Slick Willie” in response to what editors perceived was his misrepresentation of his own politics. Toni Morrison later called him “the first black president” for his interest in issues affecting minorities. Through the years, we’ve had an “Honest Abe” Lincoln and a Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon. And who could forget “The Gipper,” Ronald Reagan?
CNN.com has integrated their inauguration feed with Facebook's status message component. Users can chat with friends or strangers worldwide as they watch today's events unfold.
Did you know that YouTube didn’t even exist during the 2004 election? The site is so ingrained into our Web culture that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t available for public use until ’05. FoxNews.com will host several live chats across the nation, allowing users to chat with soldiers, laid-off autoworkers, fire-fighters, and average citizens struggling to keep their homes following the recent mortgage crisis
Now, news sites like CNN.com and FoxNews.com are doing what they can to keep up with our tech-savvy president-elect. CNN has paired up with Facebook to allow users to watch the inauguration live starting today at 12 noon (EST). The Facebook element will allow these users to chat about the event as it happens, whether just with their friends or with people worldwide–it’s up to the viewer.
Meanwhile, FoxNews.com has also set up some live chats as well as a live feed for inauguration coverage, but the methods are a little old school. The chats and streaming video aren’t integrated into one neat little page as on CNN.com, but are rather separated throughout the site. One interesting difference, however, between Fox’s coverage now and the live chats of yore is that the network is taking to heart Obama’s grassroots message. Recently laid-off autoworkers will preside over the Detroit chat, for example, while military servicemen, women and their families lead the North Carolina discussion.
For the first time, internet users everywhere can truly experience an American inauguration together, sharing thoughts and expressing feelings with others next door and miles away. If you can take advantage of this unique privilege, I suggest you do.
Rima Chaddha Mycynek is a writer, reporter, editor, photographer, videographer, former talk show host, and all-around journalism nerd. She currently teaches multimedia journalism at Boston University. [
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4 users responded in this post
Last night, I was on my PS3 in a HD virtual world in Hong Kong talking to people from around the world about this.
My virtual self joined others in dancing.
That was pretty neat.
btw- the first presidential theft has occurred.
Donna Brazil, a democratic pundit on ABC and CNN, STOLE the blanket Obama used on his chair. She admitted it on ABC news just now. Just went to his chair and snatched it.
LOL
Tom, that’s great about the PS3 world. Did anything else cool happen? Were there Obama look-alikes wandering the streets?
As for Donna Brazil, I saw her report while I was at the gym a little while ago–hilarious. Did you catch her “it’s not theft because we have a black president” faux pas, though? She tried to get out of that one pretty quickly!
Well… I caught the MOney God finally! LOL
But no… no Obama look alikes. Though Hong Kong’s server doesn’t allow you to purchase a suit unless you are a native of HK. So you are limited in how you can emulate the President.
yeah… that was really funny with Donna! Hahaha! I hope she doesn’t get in trouble. Obama may have to use his first Presidential Pardon!
But on more serious news…. I’m hoping Teddy Kennedy is alright. Obama’s grandma died before the election. And I hope this day too isn’t saddened by Kennedy passing away. And I really hope Kennedy will be okay.
He’s the last of the Kennedy brothers.
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