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White House spokesmen are increasingly cutting the press corps out of their media strategy and turning to social networking forums to get their message to the American people.

Whilst Twitter is the current favourite medium, few digital avenues have been left untapped by the Democrat administration. Their direct marketing portfolio also boasts an interactive website, Facebook and Flickr profiles, a blog, chat rooms, videotaped press releases and a campaign email list with 13 million members.

The effectiveness of Twitter as a means both of spreading news and shepherding or defusing a public response was recently demonstrated by the White House public handling of the momentous health care reform bill. When Obama chose to skip a planned visit to Australia and Indonesia to pursue the domestic reform fight, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs informed the public via Twitter and when Vice President Joe Biden was overheard enthusiastically eulogising the passing of the bill as 'a big f------ deal', Gibbs and Twitter were once again on hand to pre-empt any public uproar.

President Obama has not held a large-scale press conference since July and, whilst not dismissing the role of independent press organs, his spokesmen are lauding direct marketing as means of keeping on the front foot with their media agenda, tracking the American public and reporters' responses to policy developments and not allowing external channels to dictate or distract from their message.

In an interview with US news channel CNN, Gibbs described his conversion to the microblogging site when the deputy press secretary, Bill Burton, left his laptop open on his Twitter feed during a White House press briefing: 'It was fascinating, because I'm watching the White House press corps sitting ten or 15 feet away from me reacting to and responding to the questions that were asked, and the answers that the president was giving. I thought it was an amazing tool to know. I also think it's a fabulous medium in which to communicate with not just the White House press corps, but tens of thousands of people that want to know what the president is doing, or a picture of who he met with.'

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