To tweet or not to tweet. That, unfortunately, is the question
If ever you wanted a vision of the future of online journalism, then pehaps it’s this: a video of one SMH journalist interviewing another SMH journalist about why they don’t use Twitter.
Three minutes and three seconds of digital media devastatingly deployed.
The key quote from David Marr in the conversation with Georgina Robinson: “I think SMSing is fabulous.”
The first time I’ve actually let the video play on a Fairfax site.
User ID not verified.
In no way defending David here but if he doesn’t want to use a medium like twitter isn’t it better that he doesn’t? He probably doesn’t have accounts with Discus, Tumblr, Yelp or FourSquare either – should he have those because he can connect with millions of others too?
Yeah there’s an aspect of ‘he doesn’t know what he’s missing’ but the same could be said for anything “Oh you really should live in Cairo, if you don’t you don’t know what you’re missing”….
If using twitter just isn’t something he wants to do, despite having a ‘dabble’ with it, is it really such a big loss? Are people really less connected to him than they otherwise might be? Are they really getting less volume of valuable insights from him?
I’m not sure, but an opt-in social media environment with people that want to engage with is inherantly more valuable than if they feel pressured to use it, and don’t really want to. Thoughts?
*- I know this part of the website is usually for lighter discussion, but I just wanted to throw the questions out there.
User ID not verified.
Yeah tweeted it, but these “I’ll never tweet” types still like to pontificate, despite total ignorance on the topic, and pontificating without having the slightest idea of what you’re talking about always makes you look like a bit of a plonker. And it’s a bit sad to see david marr making himself look like a bit of a plonker.
On the other hand, I’ll never live in Cairo because I don’t want to be always be bitten by asps and live in a pyramid.
User ID not verified.
@ Worst of Perth – agreed. To be honest I’m not absolutely sure why F’Fax even bothered putting Marr on video explaining why he wasn’t / doesn’t want to tweet, you’re right about the pontificating and plonkerism, it doesn’t put him in a good position either way.
Re Cairo though, c’mon, waking up next to the Nile, thanking Ra for the early morning sun, wearing a glorified sheet as your main way of preserving your modesty, and think of the views from a Pyramid – talk about one of a kind – true, it’s mostly desert but still, the land value must be enourmous.
User ID not verified.
And looking at the (unscientific) poll accompanying the story that showed a majority of respondents couldn’t see the point in Twitter, it looks like he is in the majority and knows his audience pretty well.
User ID not verified.
Clearly the SMH thinks people actually care about the views of these journalists.
Most don’t even know who they are.
User ID not verified.
Twitter users generally fall into two camps:
(i) egotistical narcissists, who think everyone will follow their every utterance however banal, and (ii) sheep-like sycophants who do the following.
The harsh truth is that there’s no in-between zone, as that’s the way it’s set up.
The sole exception might be media observers who want to tap into the luvvies-zeitgeist, or get a sense of what followers-with-low-self-esteem are saying.
Which is probably why broader Australia hasn’t taken it on beyond a sign-up and lookaround, because they sit in the middle zone.
User ID not verified.
For people who like reading and discussing politics, most of them have read stuff by David Marr and they refer to it in their opinion pieces (such as his Quarterly Essay on Kevin Rudd). People who want to claim they are knowledgeable about Australian politics would not only know David Marr but also be able to refer to his most famous writings.
The average person wouldn’t know who Tim Burrowes is, but it would be difficult to claim that you are knowledgeable about the Australian media/marketing industry without being able to recognise both his name/role and also be able to refer to things that he’s written.
So for people who use Twitter to stay up to date with political news and opinion, not having David Marr available as one of the people to follow would seem a pity as his political writings are one of the things they refer to in discussions.
I think Twitter is useful (I have been attending Brisbane Twitter Underground Brigade meetings since it first started in 2007 – back then there was only ten of us, now there are hundreds attending), but I don’t like to use it because it is not the format I prefer to share/receive information through (I need more words, so I am addicted to Facebook [Google+ is a fine format too, but doesn’t have the same amount of content – I’ve spent years organising my Facebook so that it acts like an RSS collecting all the best content from the best people while avoiding the crap into easy to find places]). I also find Twitter more time-consuming than Facebook because it is so immediate, whereas Facebook I can read the links in my own time, but in Twitter you have to be online and watching to notice the relevant information.
If you are not better informed about a wider arrange of topics through using social media, you are using it wrong. While there are people who only post inane status updates about their emotional state, there are a whole bunch of people sharing content with the intention of informing their friends (so even when they do occasionally post about what they had for lunch, they will phrase it like a review so that their friends know whether to visit or avoid the place they just tried out).
User ID not verified.