On Twitter and Classical Media
It took me quite a long time to appreciate the usefulness of Twitter.
I’m still not very active myself but I’ve come to see its uses when trying to gauge current interests. For example, evaluating the popular topics of German twitter users is very revealing. As I’m typing, interest no. 1 is the tag #zensursula which is a portmanteau for “Zensur” (censorship) and “Ursula” (Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth Ursula von der Leyen). And, not surprisingly, this alludes to her unholy campaign to censor child pornography web sites and track accesses instead of prosecuting perpetrators.
The law (using blacklists similar to the ones in Australia and elsewhere) is of course stupid, since ineffective, faulty, prone to misuse and likely unconstitutional.
So why is this of particular interest? Because it (once again) shows two classes in the information society: one class are we who live on the Internet. The other class are those poor people who get shoved the bullshit of the classical media down their throats. Media coverage of Ursula’s campaign? Zilch. Well, no. There sure is a media echo — in the literal sense of “echo”, praising the government’s politicking in the minister’s own words.
What I’d wish for is a media reflection. While the police uses flimsy excuses to raid homes of those who document questionable government actions, the media is silent. I hate to be an alarmist but such actions just crossed the line in a constitutional state.
This is just another confirmation that the classical media has become totally out of touch with what matters. There’s just no conceivable argument that can be made against the importance and public interest of this topic. The censorship law is in direct violation of the most fundamental principles of our state, it’s ineffective and it is a populist’s exploitation of voters. Furthermore, it’s so easy for the media to tap this. Why is nobody doing it? Why doesn’t a single news channel use this chance to land a big hit, and drag all those lies and distortions out into the public?
Frankly, I don’t care for the reasons any more. But if I want to stay informed, Twitter has become a valuable addition to other sources of news on the web.
I’m constantly surprised (read: disappointed and shocked) just how many of the young people (< 30) I know that have no intersection with the Internet at all.
They read mail, and then (if they’re really modern) they read mail on StudiVZ and that’s about it. They go to spiegel.de for news or if they are bored, and that’s about it as well.
The image you perceive through Twitter statistics is highly biased towards your personal view of the world.