January 31, 2006

Historically, when Americans watch the president’s “State of the Union”
speech, which is tonight, the feedback they give involves mostly
yelling at the television if they lean Democratic, or cheering if they
favor the Republican view. But we live in somewhat different times.

ABC News and AOL News are experimenting tonight with a “People’s State
of the Union,” which will allow citizens to use the Internet to
contribute text and video comments with their reactions to the
president’s speech and the Democratic response. This is designed as a
sort of electronic town square.

Some of the video is expected to come from people sending in short cell-phone video clips.

The plan is for some of the public response to be shown throughout
ABC’s coverage of the State of the Union, on various ABC News
television programs, ABC News Now, ABCNews.com, and AOLNews.com.

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Steve Outing is a thought leader in the online media industry, having spent the last 14 years assisting and advising media companies on Internet strategy…
Steve Outing

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