--- title: Obama Adviser Will Host Weekly Online Chat With Public description: Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett will engage with citizens across a range of social media canonical: https://time.com/4111586/obama-online-chat-office-hours/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-13T16:29:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:35:43.262Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Senior Adviser Will Host Weekly Online Chat With Public og:description: The latest administration effort to expand Obama's digital presence og:url: https://time.com/4111586/obama-online-chat-office-hours/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32ed76d7b473d2cd/698870e8cf40a82f4cc40a46/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend Women's Leadership Forum Conf. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Senior Adviser Will Host Weekly Online Chat With Public twitter:description: The latest administration effort to expand Obama's digital presence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32ed76d7b473d2cd/698870e8cf40a82f4cc40a46/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Senior Adviser Will Host Weekly Online Chat With Public by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 13, 2015 4:29 PM UTC  President Obama speaks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum in Washington, DC on Oct. 23, 2015. President Obama speaks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum in Washington, DC on Oct. 23, 2015.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 13, 2015 4:29 PM UTC Earlier this week, President Obama [joined Facebook](http://time.com/4105146/president-obama-facebook-page/) in an effort to expand the administration’s digital reach. And starting Friday, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett is hosting weekly “office hours” to chat directly with the American people about some of the most pressing issues facing the nation. At 12p.m. ET, Jarrett will host a Twitter Q&A on health care and women’s health issues, as the administration aims to get at least 10 million Americans signed up for health care plans during the current open enrollment period. In the first week, about 550,000 people signed up for insurance. Every week, the Obama administration will choose a new topic for Jarrett to explore with the American people—highlighting both priorities of the administration like LGBT rights, climate change and criminal justice reform, as well as issues of interest to every day citizens. The weekly session—which will be hosted on a range of social media, from Tumblr to Google Hangouts—will also add to the president’s ever-growing digital presence, led by the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy. Obama’s recently launched Twitter account has allowed him to both release fact sheets about key policy decision and join viral conversations like the one that surrounded Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas teen who was arrested when his clock got mistaken for a bomb. A few weeks ago, Obama invited Ahmed and several other youth to an [Astronomy Night](http://time.com/4078530/ahmed-mohamed-clock-white-house/) event on the South Lawn. When Twitter was abuzz on Back to the Future Day, the official @POTUS account chimed right into the conversation. > [](https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/656926385882185728) Aside from engagement, social media has also allowed Obama to circumvent middle men like the news media all together, another aspect of the president’s communication strategy. “Ultimately, what all of this is about is finding ways to communicate with people in a time when media has become so disaggregated that simply communicating through the traditional news is woefully insufficient,” Obama’s former adviser Dan Pfeiffer told the [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/us/politics/a-digital-team-is-helping-obama-find-his-voice-online.html) this week. **Read More**: [Obama Steps Down from the Bully Pulpit ](http://time.com/3889355/barack-obama-media-strategy/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4111586/obama-online-chat-office-hours/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4111586/obama-online-chat-office-hours/"},"headline":"Obama Senior Adviser Will Host Weekly Online Chat With Public","datePublished":"2015-11-13T16:29:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:35:43.262Z","description":"The latest administration effort to expand Obama's digital presence","url":"https://time.com/4111586/obama-online-chat-office-hours/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Obama","President Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32ed76d7b473d2cd/698870e8cf40a82f4cc40a46/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32ed76d7b473d2cd/698870e8cf40a82f4cc40a46/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend Women's Leadership Forum Conf.","caption":"Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend Women's Leadership Forum Conf.","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4111586/obama-online-chat-office-hours/","name":"Obama Senior Adviser Will Host Weekly Online Chat With Public"}}]}] ```