Ever since the election of Barack Obama back in November, and subsequently his inauguration, there's been a lot of chatter (and twittering) about our government becoming more transparent. After all, President Obama's use of social media during his campaign seemed to make him more accessible and made us feel like we could actually help him to shape policy in Washington.
Now, even though we haven't heard from him on Twitter since January 19th, he and members of his administration have posted weekly addresses and messages on YouTube on the White House Channel. In my opinion, I think this is great. I wouldn't necessarily call it transparency (we're never going to get that - it's US government); but he's making use of a popular medium outside of television to spread a message. So, the executive branch is on YouTube, so what about the legislative branch.
Um, yeah.
The official YouTube channel of the US House of Representatives is called HouseHub. I checked it out, and I did find some interesting stuff on there. Different representives (and senators) have their own channels, and in their videos they talk about issues that matter to them and what they plan to do. Some of these videos stir up some good discussion and debate in the comments (check out "Meet Senator Sanders" on Vermont senator Bernie Sanders' channel). But others, well, don't give me too much hope. Here's a prime example:
Was I just rickrolled by Nancy Pelosi? And her cats?
So, what do you think? Are congress's YouTube efforts a big step forward, or a big waste of time (for them and us)?
