White House Touts Citizen Responses to State of the Union

Less than three hours after President Obama completed his State of the Union address, the White House had already posted a collection of citizen responses to the speech.

The selected statements -- all supportive of the president -- came from three people using “Citizen Response,” a tool developed by the White House’s digital strategy office that allows people to highlight and comment on each sentence of the speech. The three statements supported the president’s commitments to civilian training for returning veterans, raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour and bringing gun control legislation to a vote in Congress. People who use the tool to leave statements are asked to submit their email addresses for “follow ups and general updates.” It’s not yet clear how the White House will use the information or if it will release metrics about positive and negative responses. Citizen Response was part of a weeklong push to use digital media to enhance citizens' connections with priorities in the president’s speech.