When news of Michael Jackson’s death filtered through by text in the pub last week, many present jumped straight onto their Twitter accounts to see if they could ascertain if it was hoax or truth (myself included). In the next hour as the news varied from unconfirmed to “alive but in a coma” and back again in a torrent of Chinese whispers, it was a salient reminder that Twitter should not be treated as a legitimate news source in any capacity.
This hasn’t stopped Twitter becoming the first port of call for many looking to announce or denounce. Last week, NME Editor Conor McNicolas resigned from his position on the micro-blogging service telling his “followers” that he is moving to become editor at Top Gear magazine while in the aftermath to a alleged assault between celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and Will.I.Am of Black Eyed Peas, both took to Twitter and videoblogs to fight their corner. Perez tweeted that he was attacked by Will.I.Am and his security guards - “I am bleeding. I need to file a police report.” He had time to tweet but not ring the police?
Will.I.Am in response, was quick to point fingers at Perez as the source of the altercation for calling him “a faggot”. Yawn. The general consensus is that Perez over-reacted as he did later in the week when he posted a distasteful rumour that Michael Jackson was looking for publicity and not actually dying. As as result, hundreds of Twitter users have been calling for a boycott of the blogger.
On the positive side of Twitter take the example of Amanda Palmer. The Dresden Dolls frontwoman has been an active user of the service using it to directly engage with fans and managed to turn her addiction into revenue. After announcing a “LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS” party to her 30,000 followers recently, Palmer had managed to mobilise a virtual flash mob within minutes. After the virtual group came up with a list of things that the government should do for people who hang out on their computers on a Friday night (free government-issued sweatpants and pizza), Palmer designed a t-shirt with the slogan “Don’t Stand Up For What’s Right, Stay In For What’s Wrong”. By the end of the night, she had grossed $11,000 in t-shirt sales via a hastily-put together Paypal page. A few days later, she hosted a webcast auction and a twitter-only donation gig which made her a further $8,000 in total. As Palmer put it – her total made from her major label deal - $0, total made from Twitter - €19,000.
Features
Fri, Jul 3, 2009