well hey there and welcome back to highlights history now we've been going through unit two of the ap government curriculum and in this video we're going to talk about presidential communication so if you're ready to get them brain cows milk to bully pulpit style well then let's get to it so our objective in this video is as follows explain how communication technology has changed the president's relationship with the national constituency and the other branches now there's one advantage that the president has that no other single politician has namely the unique attention of the nation if you stop 10 people on the street it's likely that many of them would not be able to name their congressional representatives or even know their face if they pass them on the street but everybody knows who the president is and if they're keeping track of politics they have their eye on the president and that is a huge advantage for the executive branch remember that among the informal powers of the president is persuasion the president has a whole chunk of policies to be enacted but can't pass any of those laws on the president's own authority so therefore must rely on congress to enact that legislation in line with the presidential policy agenda so how does the president get that done through persuasion and the main way that happens is through the president's communication with the nation and the other branches of government president teddy roosevelt called the presidency a bully pulpit let me just explain what that means because that could be confusing a pulpit of course is where a preacher stands to communicate to a congregation bully in this sense isn't used the same way as we use it today like we think of the word bully as that kid who wants your lunch money or he's gonna punch you in the throat but roosevelt didn't mean bully in that way is that the presidential communication was a coercive means to get his will done bully in the old sense just means excellent so by roosevelt's reckoning the office of president is a bully pulpit to get the policy agenda passed and he's right when the president speaks the nation listens and they may agree or disagree with that speech but regardless they are listening now the only constitutionally required communication from the president is a state of the union address which is required from time to time in order to recommend to congress's consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient george washington delivered his state of the union addresses in person but subsequent presidents threw that precedent out until woodrow wilson took it back up in the early 20th century so the state of the union address happens at the beginning of every year and that's exactly what the president does he makes all kinds of policy recommendations to congress while the nation listens along no other politician has that kind of platform now presidential communication has changed over time as new technologies have emerged washington's state of the union addresses along with many presidents after him were published in the newspapers additionally any speeches given by the president were necessarily filtered through newspaper journalists but over time new technologies enabled the president's bully pulpit to become even bullier probably the biggest leap forward in this respect was during the presidency of franklin roosevelt in the 1930s at that point many americans had radios in their homes and gathered around them for entertainment and news roosevelt elected as he was during the worst economic crisis in american history sought to use this technology for his benefit he had made many promises about the mountain of legislation that he would enact in his first hundred days in office but he knew that he needed the people on his side to get it done quickly and efficiently so he hosted what were known as fireside chats through the radio in which he explained in common language the outlines of the major proposals and what their impact would be on american he discussed why he was enacting a bank holiday and how that would fix the banking crisis and then they explained many of the different agencies and policies that were part of his new deal program and you know what that very much worked the amount of legislation fdr was able to get passed in his first hundred days was staggering thanks in large part to the old bully pulp but then television came along and that changed the nature of the bully pulpit as well now not only could a president speak directly to the people audibly but he could do it visually as well the interesting thing about television is that it made it necessary for the president to look good as well as sound good for example during the presidential debates between richard nixon and john f kennedy people could either listen to them on the radio or watch them on television and those who listened on the radio overwhelmingly thought that nixon had won the debates but those who watched on television overwhelmingly thought that kennedy had won the debate why because on television nixon was sweaty and not nearly as nice to look at as that young whippersnapper on the other side anyway kennedy went on to win the presidency and began hosting televised press conferences to answer questions and to speak to the american people about his policy agenda but even with the radio and television as bully pulpits for the president's communication they were still media that were filtered through third-party journalists but with the rise of social media the bully pulpit was again transformed significantly with sites like facebook and twitter and youtube the president was able to speak directly to the american people without third party mediators additionally the speed at which the president could comment publicly and respond to public issues was unprecedented now was barack obama who mastered the use of social media in order to get elected and keep his constituency informed of policy proposals but it was his successor donald trump who got bullier on the social media bully pulpit than anyone before him twitter was his platform of choice and in the four years of his presidency the man created more than 26 000 tweets in his first year he averaged almost six tweets a day but by year four he averaged almost 35 tweets per day and he used this bully pulpit to praise those loyal to him attack his political enemies and urge the american public to support its policy agenda now i said earlier that social media as a bully pulpit removed the third party restrictions from the presidential communication but that's not quite right even though presidents can now speak as frequently as they want through social media and mostly without any kind of filtering trump was able to find the limit of that late in his fourth year as president twitter banned his account because they believed he played a direct role in inciting an insurrection on the capitol building on january 6 2021. and so his favorite bully pulpit was a shutdown okay that's what you need to know about unit two topic seven of the ap government curriculum click right here to grab your view packet if you want help getting an a in your class and a five on your exam in may if i may say so myself it is a bully packet if you want me to keep making these videos then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige heimler out