The Fireside Chat vs. the Podcast

In today's troubled economy, government and corporations need to borrow FDR's playbook and truly connect with constituents through Web 2.0, say Peppercom's Steve Cody and Sam Ford

by Steven Cody and Sam Ford

Franklin Delano Roosevelt revolutionized Presidential communication in 1933 with his fireside chats, where he used the growing power of radio to invite listeners into the White House and to join them in their living rooms.

In the midst of the Great Depression, that type of personable and direct communication helped FDR get his message directly to the citizens and instilled confidence in the nation's leadership at one of its lowest economic points. What's more, that style of "personalized" mass communication assuredly played a role in FDR's unprecedented three re-elections and in establishing his legacy as one of our most revered leaders.

Sadly, most governmental bodies and financial companies today are not as adept as FDR when it comes to getting their messages out using new communication technologies. Talk of recession in America has solidified into acceptance by a significant portion of the U.S. population. With financial-services companies posting drastic losses, quarterly profit forecasting in disarray, and the government doing little to instill confidence while facing the duel threats of rising gas and food prices, we can't help but question how:

• Governmental powers can better communicate with the nation during an economic downturn;

• Corporations can converse more openly and efficiently in a time of lowered economic confidence;

• Both might use digital tools to revolutionize how they reach their audiences.

The Financial Turmoil of 2008

An anecdote to illustrate the state of the industry is the recent story of AIG (AIG). The biggest insurance company worldwide, AIG has suffered hits in public credibility in the past few years, first from an accounting scandal and then from vastly underestimating a $5.29 billion loss for the last quarter of 2007.

With industry analysts complaining about AIG's lack of transparency throughout the crisis, it seems that timely digital communication could have better prepared AIG's multiple audiences for the pending news. While the company is making significant changes to overcome these setbacks (including the recent appointment of Bob Willumstad to the CEO position), AIG's customers, business partners, and investors still need significant reassurance that the company's top management is competent and has confidence in its current business model and long-term goals.

Perhaps the most troubling financial controversy this year, however, was a governmental one: the Federal Reserve's bailout of fallen Wall Street titan Bear Stearns. The story was particularly troubling because of the utter lack of transparency surrounding the Federal Reserve's intervention.

Political Communication in a Digital Age

By contrast, we've seen that the Presidential campaigns are skilled in using social media to communicate with and mobilize their constituencies. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have official social networks on their campaign sites (McCainSpace and my.barackobama.com), official campaign blogs, and are on such popular social networks as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, and video site YouTube.

Additionally, Obama's camp gives regular updates through Twitter, constantly adds new images from the campaign trail through Flickr, participates in a variety of smaller social networking sites, and has launched FightTheSmears.