#tweetsbreakthenewsandmakethenews
Posted: Friday 25 March, 2011
Keredy Andrews
The news seems
increasingly obsessed with Twitter these days, from print newspapers to TV
shows that discuss the top topics of the week, such as 10 O’Clock Live;
not only is Twitter a news platform, a variety of tweets have somehow become
worthy of being news content. I find this particularly interesting and filling
a gap with a Twitter story seems to be exactly what the world is currently
interested in. 
Incidentally, the word ‘people’ is not interchangeable for ‘celebrities’. Twitter is now a portal to getting your five minutes of fame but you never know when it might strike. Imagine watching TV or listening to the radio and, low and behold, your tweet that innocently responded to something in the news is being broadcast to millions, being made fun of or at least it is being used to make fun of said news/celebrity/event. The lesson here to the common man is mind what you say, or at least have a profile name that doesn’t reveal who you are. I wish I had taken my own advice here – @the_only_keredy couldn’t be more accurate or exposing.
When it comes to celebrities, their tweets are being cited left, right and centre to the point of whole features being centred around their 140 character comments. George Michael has been the focus in a few of these stories and has been shown up as a naive, somewhat blundering and boring tweeter over the past week or so. The poor guy, he’s just learning; I doubt any journalists took to the social network on day one like a duck to water and it seems a little unfair to brand someone dull and rubbish but that’s what well know people open themselves up to when tweeting. Charlie Sheen’s remarks are now old news it seems but how many column inches and air time did that fill I wonder?
The comedian David Mitchell was being interviewed on Tuesday on the BBC 4 programme, “Mark Lawson talks to...” and before I fell asleep on the sofa (I hate doing that and waking up at 2 in the morning to crawl to bed only half awake) they were discussing the wonders of Twitter as well as his TV persona versus the real David Mitchell. He said the most disconcerting element of using the network is when reviewing his @ messages there are always a few telling him that they saw him, say walking down the Oxford Rd. Although he knows they’re just friendly fans wanting to say hi, he feels like he’s being watched not only through his tweets but in real life.
David Mitchell would be spotted wandering around whether he used Twitter or not but the platform gives a whole new meaning to the word public. Anyone using it, celebrities or not, have to realise that everything they type out can be used by anyone and there is no control over what can be said about you or even where you might be. I love Twitter, and happy fifth birthday to it, and long may #tweetsbreakthenewsandmakethenews.
