During the 2012 presidential race, President Obama took to Reddit to allow users the opportunity to ask their own questions. National debates now include user-generated questions. People no longer have to silently disagree with a politician or piece of legislation – now they can take to their own political blogs or the comment section of articles. Those voices have power behind them, and the content being created by these users is growing exponentially. The days of a passive audience are behind us, and we are moving into an age where the user is the content creator. Out of all the opportunities the internet has created, this one of the most important.
Now, with MSNBC’s Chute-powered State of Our Union campaign, we the people get to share our thoughts on the country’s current condition before the President gives his speech tonight. The campaign has been featured live on MSNBC multiple times, and is giving users a large-scale platform to interact with leading up to the important political event.
This type of visual, instant, and social content is changing the media landscape. People now have the opportunity to shape the national narrative through photos, vidoes, and 140 characters or less. The state of the union is user-generated, and publishers are racing to keep up.