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Editor's Blog

MT editor Matthew Gwyther's take on the burning business issues of the day.

Editor's blog: Twitter? Twaddle...    

Like Black Lace reunions and charity wrist bands, Twitter is a tedious fad we would do well to pull the plug on. News editors at the national newspapers have been desperate to keep up with the Joneses, i.e their proper broadcast media rivals, in offering up-to-the-minute G20 news of the crusties and anti-capitalist protestors surging on the Bank of England, busting into branches of RBS, and trying to knock policemen's helmets off. They've gone for Twitter because it's The New Thing, and because they don't have the resources in their depleted budgets to do it properly.

The result is an unwholesome mess - a garbled Babel of nonsense that leaves you screaming for a return to the times when we could read all about it the day afterwards over our Cornflakes on a page of newsprint. Both The Times and Guardian are guilty of this mindless dumbing down in the search for 'authenticity' in the form of immediacy. 'Jump against the war is the cry' squeaks one Tweeting twerp. 'AudioBoo. Turning nasty is.gd' another. Even the FT has succumbed with 'I can see the FT office from here.' Give me strength.

At one point a desperate Guardian correspondent who clearly isn't a believer wrote in exasperation: 'I wonder if it is possible to string a narrative thread together on Twitter. Probably not.' Exactly. Rarely have I seen a bunch of such randomly assembled, inane apercus. We learn nothing from them. Truly Twitter is like the ADHD kid in the classroom who just can't keep quiet but keeps piping up with inanities that nobody wants to hear.

With luck Twitter's days will soon be numbered. Not least because it is now the subject of a brilliant bit of satire in Viz magazine. Viz's new character is 'Fireman Fritter - He's Got a Twitter up his Shi**er'. The storyline is simple but telling: Fritter is so busy reading 'Tweets' emitted by Stephen Fry - 'He's going to buy some crisps... He can't decide whether to have the salt and vinegar or the ready salted' - that he clean forgets his responsibility to save those being burned to a crisp within a blazing building.   

 

Published Apr 01 2009, 04:41 PM by matthew gwyther
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2078859 April 2, 2009
I wouldn't want to get all my news this way (I go elsewhere for my 'narrative thread'), but I find Twitter provides me with a great way to keep up to date with what's happening around the world. The alternative I suppose would be some sort of formal news feed that scrolls across my iphone like on Sky News on the TV. But I'd much prefer Twitter to that. And actually, it's the human aspect of this that makes the difference. Yes, a lot of it is inane nonsense, but through this comes an understanding about what's going on at a more human level that you get elsewhere. And Twitter has more value for that. Jon Ingham (@joningham)
louis coiffait April 2, 2009
I couldn't agree more. Who is reading all these 'tweets'? Following all these links? I hope the Twitter IPO burns every fool who invests. http://www.belch.com/blog/2009/03/26/trouble-with-twitter/
N PERKIN April 2, 2009
I think you're missing the point. I don't think newspapers have 'gone for twitter because it's the new thing'. I think they are experimenting with new ways of telling the news. It's interesting that I heard about the chinese earthquake, the mumbai shootings, the hudson plane crash (I could go on) first on twitter, sometimes hours before I heard about it on mainstream media. When the Mumbai shootings were happening, I could follow comments from people who were actually there. That commentary felt more personal and more resonant than much of the mainstream media coverage I saw and read about it. I don't believe that twitter will replace professional news gathering and reporting, but it is an interesting augmentation of what there is already. It's easy to be dismissive. But newspapers are having to reinvent their model and so I think they should be applauded for experimenting and innovating in this way. And I applaud them for trying. @neilperkin
tim harrap April 2, 2009
Neil didn't go far enough in his "rant" there are numerous benefits to Twitter that are only just emerging - clearly observing live commentary on any subject you care to name will throw up ideas galore for marketing imaginations. Another example is to take a look at Google Zeitgeist. To truly understand what these media mean you have to follow Neil's advice and read Seth Godin's Purple Cow and Clay Shirky's Here comes everybody. If you only have 20 minutes then view Alan Moore on Social Media Marketing at Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/3394608?pg=embed&sec=
NIGEL HUGHES April 3, 2009
Criticising twitter for the banal content posted by some users is like daming all journalism as trash based on a handful of articles that have appeared in your least favourite newspaper. It misses the point of twitter completely. If you're not interested in a person updating you on the routine details of their boring day-to-day lives then don't follow them. Simple. However if, like me, there are a lot of people and organisations whose news and opinions you value, then twitter is an efficient way of tracking what they have to say. Admittedly I could achieve the same through some sort of RSS Feed or news ticker on my desktop or phone but, with twitter, I can also respond, if I feel like it, and engage in conversation on the subject with other people interested in the same topic, if I want to. This is where print media cannot compete. I'm also interested in the propensity for users to share information for no apparent other reason than because sharing is what you do with this form of media. This is what irritates some journalists. Their divine right to be the source of all news has been eroded. Of course, twitter is indeed a fad. Something else will come along and take its place but that's not the point. Social media is here to stay and twitter is currently the best example of the many different online communities that can be built when an idea gets momentum. @Ear_I_Am
N PERKIN April 3, 2009
Well put Nigel. Worth remembering that social tools (like twitter) are now driving serious amounts of traffic to news and other media sites. And twitter is gaining some critical mass. Data from Hitwise indicates that twitter is now getting more UK internet visits than the homepages of Guardian, Times, Sun and Telegraph. And it is growing at a much faster rate. And it has now overtaken Google News UK. During February, 9.6% of Twitter's downstream traffic was to news and media websites, and 41% of that went to the print sub-category which is dominated by newspaper sites. Facebook is even bigger, sending 10 times the amount of traffic to this category than twitter. For some sites, Facebook sends more traffic than Google (source: Hitwise). The point is, smart media owners are using these tools to experiment & understand how they can find new ways to engage their audience, join a conversation, drive traffic to their site, distribute their content. As Nigel says, looking at a single format or individual twitter stream in isolation completely misses the point. Matthew - care to come back on any of these points?
Dominic Travers April 3, 2009
Have you considered that most of the "management techniques" evangelised in this oracle can also be described as a "tedious fad". I suggest that you never think about Twitter ever again. Go on just banish it from your mind and carry on with your life. Meanwhile smarter people will patiently learn how to make the most out of innovative web and mobile services and strive to make the world more just place.
Dominic Travers April 3, 2009
Meanwhile Management Today experts say... http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/channel/TechnologyInnovation/news/890156/mt-expert-innovation-engage-via-social-media/
Carol H Scott April 3, 2009
Editor's blog - brilliant. Nail hit well and truly on the head. I avoid these things like the plague - I have a life!
N PERKIN April 6, 2009
Hi Matthew. An idea - why not open up for a proper debate through the pages of your magazine? If you're up for it, I'll put one point of view and you can put the other and we can get some real debate going. Just a thought,
matthew gwyther April 7, 2009
I'm on hols at the moment but am cooking up a reply. Be warned- I'm unrepentent. Matthew
N PERKIN April 7, 2009
Thanks Matthew. Looking forward to it. :-)
Sean Fleming April 16, 2009
Blaming Twitter for the way some people use it is an interesting take on things. But in reality, you're not anti-Twitter, you're just anti-twit. Which is fair enough.
John Johnson April 16, 2009
Your emotive language and lack of strong points makes me wonder if your article is simply flamebait. Are you simply trying to stoke up a few more hits for the MT website because you know you'll get a reaction from Twitterers? I expected at least an informed discussion from someone in such a senior position at Management Today.
Aloysius Fekete April 16, 2009
I must admit that I am a sceptic when it comes to Twitter. However, I have decided to keep an open mind. There is a vast quantity of useless material - the "twit" element has so succinctly pointed out by Sean. But, it is difficult to ignore the scale of usage. I think there are two things going for it. First, it exploits mobile technology which is increasingly becoming the nexus of all manner of media communications. Secondly, it's simplicity - the one liner. We've created our own Twitter account and plan to explore it with curiosity. Aloysius Fekete MaxBips
James Taylor (Web Ed) May 15, 2009
click here for part two... http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/906159/editors-blog-twitter-twaddle-part-two
Freelance Unbound» Blog Archive » Ways to survive the media recession, part 3 December 2, 2009

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Tom Wright August 9, 2010

Ah, the snobbery of the news journalist against UGC. Now that anyone can make content, and they do, a lot of it is s***. That is undeniably true, but however it is not the point. Its the joy of joining in, of participation. Twitter might (just) go away. But the UGC that underlise your complaint is a feature of the net and is here to stay. No participation = no audience online. Get over it. 140 characters and a tiny URL are enough to point me at anything. And I love it.

 
 
 
 

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