Twitter’s power serves a Guardian ‘disaster’

Dub13 · Jan 28, 2011

Twitterâ€™s power serves a Guardian â€˜disasterâ€™

http://backpagefootball.com/premier-league/twitters-power-serves-a-guardian-disaster/

What happened? On Thursday evening, the Guardian hyped up an exclusive two hours before it was set to appear at 5:30. Twitter ran into a frenzy of speculation, but the exclusive – a rumour that Inter Milan were to bid for Gareth Bale in the summer – was a major dud, rather than a major exclusive.

Twitter is a very powerful medium. Just ask Ryan Babel, who is Â£10,000 poorer since his Howard Webb message. Everybody involved with football knows the informative, instantaneous powerhouse Twitter has become. This can be seen in the number of media outlets, businesses and organisations that are now associated with it, even Sky Sports News have began to report news that has stemmed from Twitter.

A rumour gets retweeted again and again, and suddenly it’s common knowledge throughout the world, or at least by those who follow certain people. The social networking site’s true power stems from it’s instantaneous ability to spread news and information, the prime example being Michael Jackson’s death just over a year ago. The story spread like wildfire, and the Twitter servers struggled to cater for the traffic. Even Wikipedia crashed, as thousands upon thousands of people flocked to the encyclopaedia to see Michael Jackson’s page as they couldn’t access Twitter.

Twitter is also powerful because it the only online website ever devised that seamlessly unites football fans, football bloggers, football journalists – and the odd football player – into one large community.

On a footballing level, a rumour surfaced earlier this month when an ESPN journalist, who only had a few hundred followers, mentioned Luis Suarez was about to sign for Liverpool. This was long before the recent dealings between the Merseyside club and Ajax, but nonetheless the rumour was picked up by a number of Twitter users and it spread rapidly. The journalist in question, who may not even have been the first to make the allegation, gained a few hundred more followers as fans retweeted, speculated and crossed their fingers in hope that this may be true. It may well end up happening, but at the time there was no previous links between Suarez and Liverpool. This is just one example of many since Twitter – and particularly the football community – grew to such a gigantic scale in early 2010.

Even our Twitter account has been the source of a ballooned transfer rumour, when we got word that Warren Barton – the former Newcastle defender and now football pundit in America – had said live on air that he had just got a text from Shay Given (his ex-team mate) saying a move to Arsenal was on. We tweeted it. It got retweeted over one hundred times. But evidently, it wasn’t true. But who are we?! It just goes to show, regardless of your standing on Twitter – whether you have 100 followers or 10,000 followers – it is dangerously powerful.

But this evening’s ‘disaster’ for the Guardian took on whole new levels, and all from one single tweet from their sports editor Ian Prior. Not because their 5:30pm ‘exclusive’ was false, but because of the terminology used by Ian. ‘Major’ and a football ‘exclusive’ aren’t exactly terms I’d associate with Gareth Bale possibly joining Inter Milan, or the Milan club possibly making a bid for him. Even the transfer fee speculated, Â£40million, doesn’t fall into the ‘major’ category of football news stories these days. Don’t get me wrong, it’d be a massive story for football in Europe if it materialises, a Welshman joining the Italian powerhouse for such a large fee, but fans expected something, well, major and exclusive, not something that is – at the moment – just a rumour. It didn’t shine the newspaper in a nice light, but at the same time, could be regarded as a compliment for the high standards it is expected to produce. It would have been a very good story, had it not been staged two hours earlier in earnest.

The resulting panic, excitement and speculation that ensued after Ian’s tweet was nothing short of phenomenal. The #GuardianExclusive hashtag, where fans made comical updates of what the story may be, became a worldwide trending topic. You know you’ve made it when you become a worldwide trending topic. And all because of one single tweet. Speculation grew to such a pace that their were mentions of Alex Ferguson retiring, Carlos Tevez joining Chelsea, even Manchester United being taken over with a Â£2billion bid. These are major football exclusives.

Journalists, bloggers and fans the world over sat intently with the Guardian Football page open, index finger abusing the F5 button on their keyboard as 5:30 couldn’t come any sooner. Twitter continued to spread the news. It was probably texted around between mates. It undoubtedly made chat forums all over the world, from Football 365 to non-football websites.

5:30 came around, and the world exclusive fell flatter then a lead balloon. Carlos Tevez joining Chelsea would be a major football exclusive. Even announcing the completed transfer of someone like David Luiz or Luis Suarez would be quite a big story. Not reporting a quoteless story that Inter Milan could make a Â£40million pound bid in five months time.
Cue a furore of disappointed status updates, angry messages and undeserved abuse. The story on the website had over 100 comments in five minutes. So it wasn’t the world shaking story everyone had been expecting, but it’s nothing worth crying over. Fans get excited, especially over potential ground breaking news as we were lead to believe.

This is just another in a long line of examples of Twitter’s social explosiveness. Twitter has united each footballing hierarchy of fans into one, and that in itself is a generator of energy that nobody can control when it gets out of hand. Twitter has seen the growth of football blogging, which ironically the Guardian have been so innovative in welcoming to their shores with the 100 blogs of 2011, the ‘what we liked this week’ section and the World Cup’s fan network. The Guardian should have known better, that you don’t big up a story and not expect a backlash if you don’t fulfil it, especially when you have a reputation as valuable as they do online. Ian, Sid Lowe, Daniel Taylor, Sean Ingle, Barry Glendenning and Guardian Football itself are just some of the many Twitter accounts associated with the newspaper and it’s online website, and with them alone you have nearly a 100,000 strong following.

Earlier last year we published an article on the problems facing football journalists and the expectation of Twitter usage before the World Cup. In hindsight, they performed magnificently and continue to do so. Even Henry Winter, an early adopter of Twitter but who was notorious for his lack of interaction on the site, has began following and replying to people.
But as this evening proves, there are still a lot of kinks to work out when it comes to Twitter and what it has done to news reporting and football writing.
Click to expand...

GaryMc · Jan 28, 2011

He was bound to know the reaction, it probably put their web states of the scale.

MrsPepe · Jan 28, 2011

kopirish said: ↑

He was bound to know the reaction, it probably put their web states of the scale.
Click to expand...

^^this

Dub13 · Jan 28, 2011

kopirish said: ↑

He was bound to know the reaction, it probably put their web states of the scale.
Click to expand...

If true its a very surprising tactic from such a good organization as the Guardian.

elvis · Jan 28, 2011

My immediate reaction was. "this guys a knob" then I thought, its a huge publicity stunt. But I think it may have backfired in the aftermath of the disappointment everyone feels. If they had of at least including a qoute it would hae saved some face.

IrishKop.com

Twitter’s power serves a Guardian ‘disaster’

Dub13
Expand Collapse

Administrator
Staff Member

GaryMc
Expand Collapse

Super Moderator

MrsPepe
Expand Collapse

Subscriber

Dub13
Expand Collapse

Administrator
Staff Member

elvis
Expand Collapse

Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Twitter’s power serves a Guardian ‘disaster’

Dub13 Expand Collapse Administrator Staff Member

GaryMc Expand Collapse Super Moderator

MrsPepe Expand Collapse Subscriber

Dub13 Expand Collapse Administrator Staff Member

elvis Expand Collapse Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Dub13
Expand Collapse

Administrator
Staff Member

GaryMc
Expand Collapse

Super Moderator

MrsPepe
Expand Collapse

Subscriber

Dub13
Expand Collapse

Administrator
Staff Member

elvis
Expand Collapse

Well-Known Member