Inauguration in the Age of Social Media

By: Irina Skaya

January 20, 2009

7:00 a.m. - Woke up and turned the television on to watch continued inauguration coverage by Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson.

8:00 a.m. - Picked up the NY Daily News newspaper to read the schedule of upcoming inaugural activities.

9:00 a.m. - Logged on to www.abc.com/news to watch live coverage of Barack Obama's swearing-in as the 44th President of the United States.

9:15 a.m. - Updated my Facebook status to share my enthusiasm with friends.

My day was not atypical. For decades, people have passively set in front of their television sets to watch historic events like the inaugural celebrations or the Watergate hearings. The historic inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44^th President of the United States and the first social media President, flocked viewers to the online live nation-wide celebration coverage and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter where users actively updated their “statuses,” and microblogged to share their reactions with the rest of the world.

When I logged-on to the Facebook Web site to update my own “status,” I was pleasantly surprised at the exorbitant number of status updates I’ve received from friends—and how much more enhanced the experience became for me. Some of my friends were reporting live from the event, uploading photos almost instantly via the use of their mobile devices. Others who celebrated the historic moment elsewhere also uploaded our own photos and videos to the social network. I, myself, have uploaded a couple of photos and video (to Facebook and Barack Obama’s online photo album) from Times Square where a small group of ANA co-workers and I witnessed the inauguration of the first African-American president. In minutes, I edited the video using the editing software that came with the flipcamera and posted it to the Web. In a way, we were all reporters for the day with the help of mobile devices and pocket-size camcorders. It felt great to be able to actively participate in the inauguration (the non-traditional way) and share my impressions with friends in real-time.

Even for those of us who weren’t in Washington, we still felt the camaraderie and unity within the social community. I am looking forward to the new administration and to further explore the power of the social media.