WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will take questions from the public via YouTube about his "State of the Union" speech on Wednesday and answer them online next week, the White House said.
White House "New Media" director Macon Phillips said in a post on the White House blog that questions can be submitted at YouTube.com/CitizenTube after the 9:00 pm (0200 GMT Thursday) address to Congress begins.
"From our live webstream to a free iPhone app, the White House is using technology to make sure the president's State of the Union address reaches as many people as possible," Phillips said.
"Now we are excited to announce how President Obama will also be using the Web to offer the public a direct and participatory way to communicate back to him," he said.
Phillips said the YouTube questions will be answered by Obama next week "in a special online event, live from the White House."
Obama relied heavily on the Internet during his presidential campaign for organizing, fundraising and communicating and has created MySpace and Facebook pages and a Twitter feed since entering the White House.
Obama's "New Media" team has also launched a channel on Google-owned YouTube and the White House is present on photo-sharing site Flickr.
Last week, the White House unveiled a free application for the Apple iPhone which features live video streaming of presidential events.
© AFP 2013