Millions across the country are expected to follow the president-elect that of Donald Trump second inauguration ceremony. Television networks, online publications and social media are gearing up for this big event. The way inaugurations have been presented to the public has changed dramatically over the years.
“We must think big and dream even bigger,” Trump said during his first inaugural address in 2017.
Tens of millions of people watched his maiden speech in real time, both on television and streaming online. But inaugural speeches and analysis speeches were not always immediately available. In 1789, when George Washington first took the oath of office, his speech was not made public until several days later.
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Thomas Jefferson became the first president to have his inauguration speech printed in a newspaper on the same day as his speech in 1801. The National Intelligencer printed the speech the morning of Jefferson’s inauguration.
James Polk was the first president to have his speech reported by telegraph. It was also the first time a speech was shown in a newspaper illustration, by the Illustrated London News.
James Polk takes the presidential oath in this illustration of his inauguration. Polk’s inauguration was the first to be published as an illustration in newspapers. (Library of Congress)
The drawings were main visual of the inaugurations for another 12 years, until photography became more frequently used. James Buchanan was the first president to have his photo taken while taking the oath of office. Forty years later, video was used to record inaugurations in front of the public.
William McKinley was the first president to appear on camera during his inaugural address in 1901. Only silent films were available then, but that would change over the years as inaugural addresses began to incorporate audio.
James Buchanan was the first president to have his photo taken upon taking office. (Library of Congress)
In 1921, Warren Harding was the first to use loudspeakers to address the crowd attending his inauguration in person. Four years later, Calvin Coolidge was the first to have his inaugural ceremony broadcast nationally on radio. The White House Historical Association estimates that his 1925 speech reached more than 23 million radio listeners. Herbert Hoover gave the first multimedia inauguration. His 1929 speech was the first recorded on a newsreel.
“It is a dedication and consecration under God to the highest office in the service of our people,” Hoover said during his speech.
After World War IIa growing number of Americans have purchased televisions for their homes. By 1949, almost every major city had at least one local television station, and 4.2 million American homes had television sets. Harry Truman became the first president to have his inauguration broadcast live that year. More than a decade later, John F. Kennedy broadcast his speech in color to the estimated 500,000 Americans with color televisions.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” Kennedy said during his inauguration speech.
Ronald Reagan sought to bring the pageantry of inauguration events to Americans across the country. Its inaugural committee hosted around 100 inaugural balls via satellite broadcast in 32 cities.
It used to be that Americans had to wait days to read a president’s inaugural address in the newspaper. Today, the event can be broadcast live and in real time anywhere in the world. (Associated Press)
“Nearly 200 years ago, when the first inaugural ceremony was held, people came by stagecoach. This time, people from all over America, millions of people, are watching it by satellite,” Reagan said at a ball at the Hilton Hotel in Washington.
More than a decade later, Second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997 was available on the Internet via livestream. Clinton had signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 a year earlier at the Library of Congress.
“Ten years ago, the Internet was the mystical domain of physicists; today it is a mundane encyclopedia for millions of schoolchildren,” Clinton said during his inaugural speech. “As we look back on this remarkable century, we can ask ourselves, “Can we hope to not only follow, but even surpass the achievements of the 20th century in America?” » »
With the development of the Internet, the use of social networks has also grown.
“We have always understood that when times change, so must we,” Barack Obama said during his second inaugural address in 2013.
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Obama was the first president join Twitter. His 2013 speech generated more than a million tweets. According to Pew Research, about 51% of Americans owned a smartphone at the time. When Trump was sworn in in 2017, that percentage rose to 77%. Cell phone carriers set up extracellular antennas before the speech for the massive crowd who would share photos and videos of the day’s events on social media.
When Joe Biden gave his address in 2021, its inaugural committee relied on technology for nearly every aspect of the event. The coronavirus pandemic forced much of Biden’s festivities to take place online.
“The world is watching us all today. So this is my message to those beyond our borders: America has been tested and we have emerged stronger,” Biden said during his speech.