back to article REVEALED: People write things on Twitter, Media

If a tree falls over and no-one tweets about it, will it get picked up by the mainstream media or not? This is the sort of BIG question that media intelligence service Precise have tackled head-on in their research paper "The Year of the Perfect Twitter Storm". Twitter Storm, credit Wikimedia A STORM, like a Twitter storm …

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  1. SuperTim
    Meh

    Thanks

    I think I already know that sometimes twitter and the daily mail write about summat or other. I just didn't know it was worthy of investigation.

  2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    So

    as I comment, I am write about you writing about .......... turtles all the way down

    recursion: see recursion

  3. Graham Dawson Silver badge

    And now you're writing about them, and I'm writing about you writing about them.

    I'd better go tweet this...

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: I'd better go tweet this

      No! Not yet. It's still too important. But if another few people comment about my reply, then their remarks might be worth a tweet.

      1. BoldMan

        So I'm commenting on your reply to a comment about the... omg my brain just exploded

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The N degrees of BS propagation

        Alright, so here's a followup on a reply to a comment about an article about "research" about media writing about twits atwitter about adverts. Saillant detail: Commentard writing owns no telly AND is in the wrong country AND doesn't have a twitter account SO has provably no clue on the matter, establishing a useful baseline.

        Now for something to say. Er. Arguably, that's not even relevant any longer. Now for some other medium with which to pick up on this. Takers?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ... and I've just commented on it ...

    ...so add that on the end too.

    No doubt they'll be busy trying to draw conclusions from the number of comments here.

    Probably by blindly counting them, rather than reading them and finding out what we actually think about them.

    But there you go.

  5. Thomas 4

    Incorrect

    People do not write things on Twitter. They type complete bollocks on Twitter, as long as it's under 140 chars.

    1. philbo
      Joke

      Twitter...

      ..just a load of people talking out their RSS

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fail

    "Oh then we've just written about it too so add that on the end."

    And now I can add another layer of turdery using the tweet button at the top of the article.

  7. Wupspups
    Facepalm

    Twittering twits

    Do we care? Wonder how much they got for writing this tosh.

  8. M Gale

    I believe the phrase here is...

    "How deliciously meta."

  9. Jan Hargreaves
    FAIL

    4) Most of the time a thing happens and neither the media or twatter report it.

    And I hope it stays that way.

  10. Ian McNee
    Coat

    "Oh then we've just written about it too so add that on the end"

    Oh no...and now I've commented on it...

    Mine's the one with a copy of Flock on a memory stick lost in the lining.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OMG! I must tweet this!

  12. mhoulden
    Holmes

    Not to mention....

    Sometimes things happen and neither social media nor the mainstream media cover it.

    Got to say I have to wonder if there's a more soul-destroying way of spending your time than tracking how successful adverts are on Twitter, apart from those numpties who describe themselves as "social media entrepreneurs" because they have a Twitter account and occasionally post links to a "how to make money" website. A popular advert doesn't necessarily mean that people will buy whatever the product is trying to sell though, regardless of their "brand awareness".

  13. disgruntled yank

    I hope to live to see it.

    Someday the expression "perfect storm" will disappear, or at least take on an obsolete look.. That day cannot come too soon.

  14. TheRealRoland

    I'm glad

    I'm glad people have something to do. Can you imagine having nothing to do for a whole day?

    At least you have twitter, in that case. Or a research company. Researching twitter usage. Or something research-ey like that. Glad resources are used for what's most necessary. Or something.

    Did they tweet about the outcome?

  15. Frederic Bloggs

    Er...

    Surely what matters is whether ElReg writes something about it?

    1. Mr Young
      Happy

      Exactly.

      The Reg will be the 1st to know when I get my flying car working!

      1. AdamWill

        shortly followed by...

        ...the fire brigade and CAA?

  16. Roger Kynaston
    WTF?

    Needs a script

    while (true)

    do

    echo "Daily Fail talks Bollocks"

    echo "Twitterati twits tweet Daily Fail Bollocks"

    echo "Daily Fail claims \"new media credentials\" based on twitterati twits tweets"

    done

    As pointless as Twitter is.

  17. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    If a tree falls in the forrest

    If a man says something, and there's no woman there...

    Is he still wrong?

    1. Ian McNee
      Headmaster

      If a tree falls in a forrest...

      ...that man may or may not be wrong but he certainly cannot spell!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        If a tree falls in DeForest

        If a tree falls in DeForest, does it break his Bones?

        (and is he still dead, Jim?)

        The tricorder hanging on the hook, please.

  18. Jimbo 6

    I was going to say...

    ... nah, forget it, it wasn't anything important.

    No icon, for obvious reasons.

  19. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    What worries me is how certain journalists and certain newspapers are Twitter and Facebook obsessed. These are the ones who try to find a Twitbook angle to every story.

    Indeed I'm told that some will journos try to create a buzz on twitter around an issue before their story on this issue is published, just so that they can work a twitter angle into the story.

    1. AdamWill
      Joke

      who told you that?

      or did you hear about it on twitter?

  20. philbo
    Facepalm

    "Media Intelligence"

    ..sounds a bit like "military intelligence" in being oxymoronic.

    1. Dibbles

      Actually, on further investigation it would seem 'media intelligence' in this case means 'charging you to monitor Twitter for you'. Which would explain why this pointless piece of 'research'.

  21. Skizz

    Breaking news.....

    I've just eaten a banana!

  22. GhilleDhu
    Coat

    +1 for Twitter ;o)

    Have to say I've pretty much given up on most "news" websites and apart from The Reg I don't really bother any more reading through all the articles. Now I follow a variety of different accounts / people and get a pretty decent overview with less effort. Granted you get muppets talking rubbish on twitter but at least they're limited to only 140 chars, and that's a lot less than what they can say if your stuck next to them in person. Tools are only as good as how you use them. :)

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym

    Yeah, this is what's wrong with Web 2.0. The signal-to-noise ratio has gone so far through the floor it's in Australia.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "This is Bob Journo, reporting from up my own backside. It's dark'"

    No surprise, only a twit would go where the Sun don't shine, without a torch...

  25. It wasnt me

    Thanks el reg.

    The tone of this article, and the intellectual insight I receive in the comments section are exactly why I read the register. Hats off to you all and a very merry Christmas!

    Pure class.

  26. PhilipN Silver badge

    Grapefruit

    As more posts appear here, the more they seem when taken together like Sayings of Yoko Ono. Doesn't that make her the first Twitterer by publishing them (as she did) 40 years ago?

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