Scacco, Joshua M. 2012. “The Digital Form of a Weekend Routine: A Research Note on the Weekly Presidential Address,” Electronic Media & Politics, 1 (6): 108-112 108 March 2012 The Digital Form of a Weekend Routine: A Research Note on the Weekly Presidential Address Joshua M. Scacco Department of Communication Studies The University of Texas at Austin 1 University Station, A1105 Austin, TX 78712-0115 (717) 222-0675 jscacco@utexas.edu ABSTRACT Barack Obama broke a presidential tradition on January 24, 2009. After almost three decades on the radio, he delivered the Saturday presidential address visually on the White House website and YouTube page. The medium transition presents an opportunity to examine the address’s evolving form as a genre of presidential rhetoric. I expand upon my recent analysis of the weekly address by examining the structure, online layout, and presidential image in the digital medium and how the salient functions of the genre are highlighted compared to its predecessor addresses on radio. I find the address’s digital form highlights the temporality of each pronouncement while strengthening its essential generic functions. The conclusion of the second Bush presidency marked the official end of the weekly radio address and the inauguration, with President Obama, of a new weekly Internet address. The unique personality of each administration allows the president freedom to shape his rhetoric within the constraints of a particular genre. Media technologies serve a vital role in this regard. Presidential rhetorical practices have endured through media changes, illustrating the continuity, flexibility, and dynamism of these kindred rhetorical acts. The Obama administration’s transition of the weekly address from the radio to Internet is one such event in the life of a genre. Building upon the generic framework that characterizes the weekly address (Scacco, 2011), this article analyzes how its transition to a digital medium has influenced the generic characteristics. Previous scholarship has argued that the weekly address has a prominent temporal dynamic that reflects the daily “tick tock” of a presidential administration and serves as a metric for the short time a president has to govern. This temporality is evident in the address’s three thematic functions as a secular sermon, mediated log, and a means for marking capital time. Understanding how these essential functions and characteristics are expressed in the digital medium will serve an important role in documenting the evolution of a genre of presidential rhetoric. Examining the dynamism of presidential communications as mediated by changing technologies, this article answers: RQ: How has the Internet altered the form of the weekly address in Barack Obama’s administration? The Digital Form of the Weekly Address The Internet has inexplicably altered the form of the weekly address. While the structure, online layout, and presidential imagery showcase the dynamism and evolution of the rhetorical form, the functions of the genre and its temporality have been maintained in the Obama administration. The digital medium has strengthened the inherent characteristics of the weekly address, providing further examples of the temporality of routine rhetoric. Structure As illustrated in prior literature, the weekly address’s structure and content is akin to a sermon (Scacco, 2011). A sermon is structurally formal in how it begins and ends with some internal flexibility to recite doctrinal values and biblical narratives. The weekly address’s beginning and conclusion had