White House Streams Answer Session

The Obama White House continued its use of new media on Tuesday night when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered questions from the public live on YouTube (News - Alert) following President Obama'sPr prime-time address on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

During the 25 minute segment Gibbs answered 12 questions from what the White House said were thousands submitted. The questions asked were those that had received the most votes earlier in the day, and ranged from how long it is expected to take to clean up the Gulf to the possibility of ending subsidies to the oil companies to whether the U.S. will require new safety measurements on deepwater rigs.

According to the White House blog, additional questions will be answered there throughout the week.

Prior to his prime time address from the Oval Office, Obama travelled to the Gulf Coast region for the fourth time since the BP oil spill began in April.  The president began his trip in Gulfport, Miss., where he met with National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen and local officials to discuss efforts to fight the BP oil spill.  Later, the president had lunch with business owners in Gulfport, to discuss the impact the oil spill is having on tourism, fishing and other industries in the region. 

Later in the afternoon the President travelled to Theodore, Ala. where he met with state and local officials and toured one of the 16 staging locations throughout the region that provide support for the ongoing cleanup efforts

The Internet-savvy White House has turned to YouTube on a number of occasions in the past and Obama answered questions from users of the Google (News - Alert)-owned video-sharing site in February.

Obama relied on the Web for organizing, communicating and fundraising during his presidential election campaign and the White House has a channel on YouTube in addition to a presence on Facebook, Flickr, MySpace (News - Alert) and Twitter.