Barack Obama

Abstract

This chapter analyzes Barack Obama’s administration in relation to the components of the ubiquitous presidency, especially how Obama adapted to the changing contexts of accessibility, personalization, and pluralism. It first tracks Twitter attention to Obama across seven years of his presidency, showing how attention spiked in relation to both traditional major addresses and newer approaches (e.g., his own tweets emphasizing elements of the ubiquitous presidency). The chapter then analyzes West Wing Week, a web series pioneered by the first official White House videographer, which takes the form of reality television and reveals the “backstage” of the presidency. Finally, the chapter uses semantic network analysis to track the relationship between the president, the press, and the public on Twitter in the context of the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare). These relationships conform to the cascading activation model, in which presidential communication influences the terms used by the press and the public.