The interesting story of fireside chats and how you can make one today
Exposing a politician to the questions of the general public is not something that new. President Roosevelt, starting in 1933, initiated a series of radio talks where the questions were directly made by the listeners.
Roosevelt addressing the nation in the radio firechat
Nowadays, something similar has been done by President Obama with his #askObama hashtag in Twitter, that is still being used today. So, even if today the digital media make it so easy to have a direct contact with the public personalities, it is quite curious to see that this trend was initiated more than 80 years ago.
Sources:
Terminología fireside chat, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fireside+chat an informal address by a political leader over radio or television, especially as given by President Franklin D. Roosevelt beginning in 1933.