back to article Tragic Twitterers tweet goodbye to family life

Here's a conundrum. Top Media People want to come out of the shadows and get "closer to their listeners" - it's what the Web 2.0 people urge them to do. BBC people in particular are obsessed with being seen to be bossy or "out-of-touch" - especially since three out of four license payers have a gripe with the corporation. But …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Kev B

    Who ?

    Looks like a picture of Rob Brydon to me or am I missing a joke here ?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    An excellent article

    The BBC have been less and less reporting the news, and more and more creating the news. Hence you hear phrases like "the BBC has learned..." - the investigative part becomes part of the news, like some kind of reality TV. There's also their tedious "cut and paste" reporting - not my phrase unfortunately, but an excellent one. Look at their disgraceful salivating over the recent OMM event in the Lakes. Unknown to the vast majority of viewers, they got it totally, embarassingly wrong.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/the-extreme-world-of-mountain-marathons-975372.html

    Twitter is therefore an important 'development' for these organisations - the process of reporting becomes part news in itself.

    I rarely watch the news now because I feel I'm being insulted and manipiulated.

  3. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: "... am I missing a joke here ?"

    Uh huh.

  4. Niall Wallace

    BBC have done twitter for years

    Yeah really, Ever been listening to footy on the radio and been watching the "live text comentary".

    The only time I have watched a twitter feed was when a rally organiser was using it as a live text commentary for results. And the only reason i was that interested in the results was be cause my brother and his driver coudl seal a championship that day.

    Other than that can't see any point in it, who really cares if you are walking the dog... Other than the old man who watches your street fro mbehind the curtains.

  5. Pete Silver badge

    I could do better than that

    Most people think that at least once a day about at least one programme that they watch or listen to. Often they're right. While us plebs don't understand the intricacies of video production or what makes a good camera shot (witness 99.99999% of home video or youtube) those are merely technical aspects. By "doing better" we mean realistic story-lines, incisive interview questions or even the ability to pronounce new-clear correctly.

    While we're happy to let the beeb know all of these things, I suspect that what they really want from customer feedback is a nice big pat on the back, recognition for their creative abilities and most of all to have their huge egos massaged - preferably in front of their colleagues and other luvvies.

    In fact, I'd suggest that most of the input the media get (in programmes that tell us to "text or email our views - and we'll read some out at the end") so overwhelms their ability to deal with it - let alone present a fair, representative or supporting cross-section on the programme in question, that it merely comes down to a random collection of the less offensive inputs, which happen to coincide with the views of the juniour sub-editor who was limbered with the task of printing them all out. Phew - long sentence, you'd never get that on the 6 o'clock news.

    There is a danger that if TV presenters do come out from behind the facade that is the TV screen, we will actually realise that not only are they merely normal people - witnessed by anyone who's ever met a celeb. in a shop "oooh, they were really nice - just like you or me" - but that in fact we could all do better - and for far less money than they are paid.

  6. Shaun Austin
    Thumb Down

    Re: Uh huh!

    Well it's a shit joke then!

  7. Martin Lyne

    Isn't

    "Groupthink" from The Chrysalids?

  8. Mike Crawshaw
    Thumb Down

    *BONG*

    Here are the news headlines.

    *BONG*

    The new series of "I'm a Desperate Wanker, Get Me On TV!!!" has started tonight. Full character profiles of all 26 celebrities involved to follow.

    *BONG*

    The latest instalment on the Beckham marriage crisis.

    *BONG*

    Jordan says she doesn't fancy Pete.

    *BONG*

    New wonder-drug to instantly cure obesity has been discovered. Available on the NHS by 2035.

    *BONG*

    The cat that ran away last night has been re-united with its tearful owner. Full interview to follow.

    *BONG*

    Oh yeah. Some war somewhere still going. We think.

  9. The BigYin
    Thumb Down

    Twitter

    Is for egotistical dicks who think people give a damn about what they do every second of the day.

    I am sure there is a psychological disease there waiting to be diagnosed. No, wait; I have it. Being an egotistical dick!

  10. drunk.smile

    I wonder how many times this article will be mentioned on twitter.

    In fact... I wonder if that was partly the purpose in writing? ... just asking (although good show).

  11. Chris Collins

    Pedantry

    Licence. Licence fee. Licensed. Licensing.

  12. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Impressive

    But sad that a grown man can let his family life go to the dogs because he puts a higher priority on blagging about washing his dog.

    As far as I'm concerned, someone who can't let his thoughts stray from the plastic toy he's got in his hand is someone who certainly cannot be asked to pay attention to the world around him, much less do investigative journalism about it.

    Think about it for a second : a plastic toy in hand, for an adult.

    Yep, it's exactly what it looks like.

  13. James

    Was it not ....

    ... Frankie Howard who advised us "Twitter ye not......"

    A wise man - well ahead of his time.

  14. Tom Richardson
    Paris Hilton

    Er...

    That picture you've captioned "Rory Cellan-Jones" is actually Rob Brydon.

    Paris because she is also stupid.

  15. peter Silver badge
    Alert

    Title's are so Web 1.0

    These days I can stomach "Web 2.0" as a phrase. After all, we need a term for all the AJAX flummery which fascinates real users. But these twits are earnestly talking about "Web 3.0".

    Web 3.0? Web 3.0?! WEB THREE POINT BLOODY ZERO! I just put the term into Google. OMFG.

    (Sorry that turned into a rant. But I needed to get it off my chest.)

  16. Simon Heffer
    Boffin

    No it's Rob Brydon

    Not Rory Cellan Jones. Is this some mix up by the author or a spoof I haven't got yet?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Rory Cellan Jones?

    Errrm, isn't that actually a photo of Rob Brydon?

    Is this a cock-up , or (another) joke that gone sailing clean over my head

    <Paris as I'm sure she'd understand>

  18. Chris Rowson
    Alert

    That's Rob Brydon!

    Erm isn't the bloke you have pictured in the article in fact Rob Brydon, not Rory Cellan-Jones?

    Have I missed the plot totally?

  19. Richard

    Thought about blogging and twittering but too busy with Real Life (tm) to get 'round to it.

    Seriously, the closest I get to blogittering is posting comments here and that's sad enough for me.

  20. Kyle
    Thumb Down

    Heh

    I like how Mr. Orlowski manages to ignore the irony of complaining about people who twitter constantly about nothing very interesting...through the medium of blogging.

    We get it. You don't like Web 2.0. Try finding a more interesting story to write about than "Har har har, look at those NuMeeja twats and their twittering blogotrons", and maybe you'll get more interesting comments than bandwagon-jumping twitter-haters.

    (Twitter has always struck me as one of those solutions searching desperately for a problem, but I just ignore it and find that to be the best solution all around)

  21. TeeCee Gold badge

    @James

    No, it wasn't.

    There was a very funny bloke called Frankie Howerd (with an "e") who used to say: "Titter ye not" quite a bit though.

  22. Luther Blissett

    Poor Auntie

    As much consumer of the hyperreal as producer (regurgitator? never! lol), Auntie suffers from the afflictions common to all - the panic of consumption. That Auntie is well, sooooooooo big, merely indicates panic in spades. (But not in hearts). (And most definitely in no trumps, lol).

    Next - a closer look at the rise and rise of the ex-Controller of R2? Or how life at the BBC really (sic) does imitates art (most obviously the novels of Dickens).

    Just think - if life at the BBC were to imitate the stories of Philip K. Dick, what interesting, varied, inspiring programs it might make. Auntie, get off your fat arse, now.

  23. Pete Silver badge

    The only thing sadder than twittering

    ... is reading other people's tweets

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Joke

    For us mere mortals who don't get the oblique Rory Cellan Jones / Rob Brydon mix-up 'joke' would someone in the know kindly let us in on the secret?

    Ta

  25. Gulfie
    Paris Hilton

    Twitter ye not indeed...

    With the BBC, trivia is made into news (the amount of coverage they gave to the QE2 briefly running aground was ridiculous) while news has become trivia. Twitter is for self-important morons who think that other people actually care about when they wash the dog or go for a dump. Sounds like I agree with Fi Glover on this one. Get a life, pulease...

    Ignore it and it'll go away. No relevance to modern society at large. At all. Ever.

    Paris, 'cos she don't need to Twitter about her hour-to-hour life...

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Meanwhile, back in the real world

    What about the woman who's started a divorce because she caught her husband having sex with someone else in Second Life? Where she met him. And she's now found a new BF on World of Warcraft.

    According to Yahoo/Sky, Sadville is growing by 70,000 users a day. I wonder who told them that?

  27. Arnold Layne
    Jobs Horns

    Surely not?

    > According to Yahoo/Sky, Sadville is growing by 70,000 users a day. I wonder who told them that

    Would have thought Sky's growth rate would have flattened out by now. 70,000 new saddos (sorry, subscribers) a day seems wildly optimistic.

  28. drunk.smile
    Thumb Up

    El Reg = an 'Internet scandal-sheet' says BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/11/close_to_you.html

This topic is closed for new posts.