White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joined Twitter this weekend, capturing more than 6,200 followers within hours of his first official tweet. (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/14/technology/AP-US-White-House-Spokesman-Twitter.html?_r=1) This venture into social media comes only weeks after President Barack Obama did his first YouTube interview – answering questions submitted by users following his State of the Union address. (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/01/obama-answers-questions-from-public-in-youtube-interview/?fbid=6wZy-7yohl8) With Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites, the White House is now able to directly connect with the people of America. But is this venture into social media a way to circumvent the press core in between?

If Americans can now direct message the White House Press Secretary and post video questions for the President, then what role does a White House correspondent fulfill? If citizens themselves can ask questions of political leaders, then why have Helen Thomas in the front row playing the intermediary?

Steve Grove, YouTube’s News and Political director, told PBS that providing a direct dialogue between the White House and Americans allows for “questions and ideas you wouldn’t see in a traditional format.” (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/02/obama-on-youtube-the-new-fireside-chat.html)

According to YouTube, 55,340 people asked 11,695 questions for Obama’s interview. Voters then cast 643,507 votes to determine the top questions. The top foreign policy question: Not Afghanistan or Iraq, which reporters constantly ask the President about. Instead, Americans wanted to know about Sudan, an issue not even addressed in the President’s State of the Union speech. The fact that Americans’ number one foreign policy concern was an issue not even on the radar of White House correspondents shows that reporters are clearly not in touch with what Americans want to know.

During the YouTube interview, some users even pitched ideas to the President, including one who said he should consider privatizing the Post Office. Never in a traditional press conference have reporters pitched ideas like that.

The YouTube interview also broke ground in using old clips of the President to call him out for his failure to keep certain promises. One user showed a clip of the President last year promising health care reform would be passed within the year, and then asked why he’s failed to do so thus far. Grove said the interview made good use of fact-checking the President.

The President said he is willing to participate in YouTube interviews in the future and the site is also trying to get other political leaders to follow suit. When asked whether these YouTube interviews would eliminate the need for White House correspondents, Grove said journalists still play a key role because they know the issues well and can ask tough, probing questions. But, he added using social media like YouTube “represents the way our political leaders can easily and efficiently connect with people across the country.”

I agree there is still a need for journalists to be the watchdogs of government. But if citizens can also act as watchdogs, correspondents covering the White House are going to need to step up their game. They need to ask tougher questions. Better questions. Pose ideas. Cover issues outside the radar of mainstream media. Fact check. Because if they don’t, I fear the role of the White House correspondent will cease to exist in the future.