Trial by Twitter
It’s well documented that Twitter is growing in popularity. Data from Comscore shows that over 58 million people are now using the micro-blogging website – that’s an increase of 949% in just twelve months.
Twitter is perfect for dealing with breaking news, with the most tweeted subjects quickly becoming trending topics. Just try and avoid finding out who’s become the latest X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing casualty on a Saturday night – it’s impossible if you’re on Twitter!
But Twitter has another side too. It’s great for creating a sense of community and with that community comes ease of sharing information. When readers were understandably outraged after reading Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately in the Mail, people quickly tweeted about their anger, making the journalist and the newspaper trending topics in their own right. As a result, people who’d never normally have read the article were logging on, to find that they were also upset and angered by what they read and going on to write about the piece on Twitter. Moir claimed she was the victim of an ‘orchestrated campaign’ and while this wasn’t ‘organised’ as such, Twitter quickly became a place for the lynch mob to vent their anger and drum up support. It didn’t take long before tweeters were calling for her resignation and the Press Complaints Commission received a record number of complaints.
Earlier this week AA Gill became the latest Twitter villain after he wrote in an article for the Times that he had shot a baboon, because he “wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone”. The columnist quickly became a Twitter trending topic as people voiced their shock – invariably leading to comparisons with Moir and pledges from tweeters to boycott Gills column in future and calling for his column to be dropped.
There’s no doubt that these articles contained comments which were offensive and upsetting to many. Whether Twitter-notoriety is something that the writers were consciously aiming for remains to be seen, but the lynch mob mentality can leave a bitter taste in the mouths of users. While it is clear to see why these articles are seen as outrageous and may have deserved complaints, surely Twitter is better used for drumming up positive support - as seen in the ‘We love the NHS campaign’ – rather than jumping on the lynch-mob bandwagon....
- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager
Twitter is perfect for dealing with breaking news, with the most tweeted subjects quickly becoming trending topics. Just try and avoid finding out who’s become the latest X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing casualty on a Saturday night – it’s impossible if you’re on Twitter!
But Twitter has another side too. It’s great for creating a sense of community and with that community comes ease of sharing information. When readers were understandably outraged after reading Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately in the Mail, people quickly tweeted about their anger, making the journalist and the newspaper trending topics in their own right. As a result, people who’d never normally have read the article were logging on, to find that they were also upset and angered by what they read and going on to write about the piece on Twitter. Moir claimed she was the victim of an ‘orchestrated campaign’ and while this wasn’t ‘organised’ as such, Twitter quickly became a place for the lynch mob to vent their anger and drum up support. It didn’t take long before tweeters were calling for her resignation and the Press Complaints Commission received a record number of complaints.
Earlier this week AA Gill became the latest Twitter villain after he wrote in an article for the Times that he had shot a baboon, because he “wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone”. The columnist quickly became a Twitter trending topic as people voiced their shock – invariably leading to comparisons with Moir and pledges from tweeters to boycott Gills column in future and calling for his column to be dropped.
There’s no doubt that these articles contained comments which were offensive and upsetting to many. Whether Twitter-notoriety is something that the writers were consciously aiming for remains to be seen, but the lynch mob mentality can leave a bitter taste in the mouths of users. While it is clear to see why these articles are seen as outrageous and may have deserved complaints, surely Twitter is better used for drumming up positive support - as seen in the ‘We love the NHS campaign’ – rather than jumping on the lynch-mob bandwagon....
- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager
Labels: AA Gill, Jan Moir, social media, twitter
posted by WarwickEmanuelPR at
11:06 AM
0 Comments
