How Periscope is already helping politicians kill the press conference

You can already watch politicians give earnest, impassioned and long-winded speeches on C-SPAN any time of day or night. But now, that messaging is coming to you -- on social media.

Two Republican lawmakers are attempting to be the vanguard for this brave new future. Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) tested out Periscope, Twitter's new tool for live-streaming what you're doing. What'll they be talking about? Only the most exciting of subjects: The federal budget and network neutrality. Viewers will be able to watch the livestream from the Senate Commerce Committee's Twitter feed. Twitter unveiled its app weeks after an alternative service, Meerkat, took the social media world by storm. But Meerkat has a drawback: You can't save the live videos you post online. Periscope is Twitter's stab at putting live video streaming into the hands of ordinary people.