Can YouTube, Snapchat and Amazon amplify President Obama’s message? The White House hopes so.

An engineer who breaks wine glasses in front of audiences to demonstrate scientific principles. A 26-year old fashion expert who came out as lesbian in 2015. A former professional gamer who uses his own animations to illustrate videos that tackle the issue of race. All three are YouTube celebrities with major followings who will interview President Barack Obama on Jan 15 about his last State of the Union address.

Getting many Americans to focus on a formal speech the president is delivering to Congress — especially in a fractured media landscape — can be hard, and administration officials are constantly looking for ways to bypass the mainstream media to connect with the audiences most open to their message. While these novel approaches have inherent risks — see YouTube star GloZell's 2015 interview with President Obama, where she used an expletive to describe Fidel Castro and referred to Michelle Obama as "your first wife" — they can also pay significant dividends. Online celebrities lay claim to millions of loyal viewers, are often more sympathetic than traditional interviewers and are particularly popular with young Americans.