[darls3000]

Apologies firstly if this thread exists but I searched and couldn't find it.

Can anyone tell me why the BBC radio DJ's have gone bananas for Twitter suddenly - 2 years after it launched? Richard bacon has turned the last 3 weeks of his show into an extended advert for Twitter and it's spread to others on Five Live and now Radio One and even when he;e on TV with Something for the Weekend.

If this kind of thing went on at a commercial station, money would have had to change hands so can anyone explain what's going on. I am so sick of it, I miss the way his show used to be without the constant Twitter this Twitter that stuff.

[Matt-08]

I was listening to Kiss the other day, and Jez never stopped mentioning it either.

Popularity just seems to have jumped recently, what with Philip Schofield and his "That's my Hedge" nonsense.

[Imus]

I did notice that, too. I signed up to it yesterday. I can't see the point.

12.09pm 'I've just boiled the kettle.'

12.11pm 'I'm stirring my coffee'

12.15pm 'I'm rinsing the mug'

12.19pm 'I'm scraping snow off my car'

Sweet Jesus, does the world need this nonsense?

[mj_32510]

It was the same with facebook and myspace, they will get bored of it in a few weeks

[R300]

I did get a pit peeved with the amount of airtime that Richard Bacon was giving over to the subject. Seemed that he had not long been part of it and then couldn't shut up about it for the rest of the week.

Same for Simon Mayo yesterday. Started with a few followers and then by the end of the show was mentioning the followers were now in the hundreds. Once again Dotun on UAN was also going on about it for the football phone in.

[wns_195]

The BBC just likes jumping on bandwagons. First it was blogging, then Facebook, now Twitter. It’s as if they’re paranoid that they’ll be out of touch with their audience if they don’t sign up to what they think is the latest craze.

There’s another reason:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditor...ching_out.html

The BBC wants to be aware of opinions that are being expressed elsewhere on the internet, and interact with people who don’t interact on the BBC website by posting comments. By using Twitter, the BBC can engage with people on other platforms.

Of course Twitter and Facebook have competitors, and the BBC is certainly giving those two websites more publicity than their rivals. In my opinion that is unfair, and as a public service broadcaster that doesn’t sell advertising, the BBC shouldn’t be endorsing specific companies. They wouldn’t behave in this manner towards offline companies such as supermarkets, furniture stores, etc.

[mikw]

The presenters are just moving with the times and representing social trends, nothing more.

No-one has said "plug Twitter and Facebook".

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Originally Posted by wns_195

Of course Twitter and Facebook have competitors, and the BBC is certainly giving those two websites more publicity than their rivals. In my opinion that is unfair

But then how many times have you heard any media outlet mention:

An auction site that's not Ebay
A search engine that's not Google
An MP3 player that's not an Apple
A PVR that's not Sky+
... or going back 20 years: A portable cassette player that's not a Sony Walkman

[djgeeza]

Originally Posted by Toxteth O'Grady

But then how many times have you heard any media outlet mention:

An auction site that's not Ebay
A search engine that's not Google
An MP3 player that's not an Apple
A PVR that's not Sky+
... or going back 20 years: A portable cassette player that's not a Sony Walkman

You could even take this further;
A vacuum cleaner that's not Hoover

[mbessex]

Originally Posted by djgeeza

You could even take this further;
A vacuum cleaner that's not Hoover

Actually academically its a dry suction cleaner.

[wns_195]

Originally Posted by Toxteth O'Grady

But then how many times have you heard any media outlet mention:

An auction site that's not Ebay
A search engine that's not Google
An MP3 player that's not an Apple
A PVR that's not Sky+
... or going back 20 years: A portable cassette player that's not a Sony Walkman

Not as often as I hear and read mentions of Twitter and Facebook on the BBC.

[darls3000]

Originally Posted by mikw

The presenters are just moving with the times and representing social trends, nothing more.

No-one has said "plug Twitter and Facebook".

But that's my point, they aren't moving with the times as twitter was around 2 years ago and very popular when it first launched (at least that was when I used to do it for all of 10 minutes) so I am baffled at the sudden popularity. A bit like them going crazy for Friends Reunited now after it's been long dead and buried. That was why I was suspicious.

[The Phazer]

Originally Posted by darls3000

But that's my point, they aren't moving with the times as twitter was around 2 years ago and very popular when it first launched (at least that was when I used to do it for all of 10 minutes) so I am baffled at the sudden popularity. A bit like them going crazy for Friends Reunited now after it's been long dead and buried. That was why I was suspicious.

It's certainly been now it's moved into the mainstream - Twitter's UK takeup went up over 4000% after Philip Schofield and Jonathan Ross signed up in a week.

To pretend that things don't take time to reach a critical mass is silly.

Phazer

[katrinap]

No need for the OP to be suspicious, this is just a reflection of what's going on in the world today. The only difference is a few shows on the BBC have got on board a bit quicker than normal. Online social networking is now woven into society, and I expect to see that reflected more and more in the media. It's already started, I just think the BBC are going quicker than the rest on this one.

Of course, it's cool and fashionable at the moment to be cynical about the BBC, but that's largely irrelevant, the moaners will move onto something else when the media lead them there. In the meantime, I'm quite enjoying the novelty of the BBC being ahead of the curve for once

[Radio Vet]

Well worth reading what Gillian Reynolds had to say about Twitter and the BBC in the Daily Telegraph this week....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-the-news.html

[mfr]

Originally Posted by darls3000

A bit like them going crazy for Friends Reunited now after it's been long dead and buried. That was why I was suspicious.

It's nothing like that at all. Twitter has just become mass market - of course it has been around for years, and I was an early adopter, but the actual number of users was tiny.

Twitter is an amazing tool for an audience to connect directly with presenters. It's not always banal - try reading Stephen Fry. In the past SMS was largely one way, and one-to-one. Chat rooms never gained much popularity and were impossible to use with thousands of users.

Of course there are rivals, but it doesn't make much sense for the BBC to spread itself thinly when those rivals have a tiny fraction of the users. In any case, it appears to be the personal choice of presenters, both on the BBC and commercially.

Twitter has become the leader, in the same way as Flash was the obvious choice for iPlayer (why not Silverlight? Should they support both?).

I spoke to JackFM in Oxfordshire the other day - they're loving the contact with listeners!

[mfr]

Originally Posted by Radio Vet

Well worth reading what Gillian Reynolds had to say about Twitter and the BBC in the Daily Telegraph this week....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-the-news.html

Interesting take, but I don't see why in-depth reporting, entertaining short comments, listener feedback and a genuine two way conversation can't co-exist.

[Radio Vet]

I think that's Gillian's point mfr - they can exist side by side, but let's have a better balance

[alanwarwic]

It is for Twits who Witter.

Decode that to 'Twits who make us suffer' for the radio presenters.

[TelevisionUser]

Originally Posted by darls3000

Apologies firstly if this thread exists but I searched and couldn't find it.

Can anyone tell me why the BBC radio DJ's have gone bananas for Twitter suddenly - 2 years after it launched? Richard bacon has turned the last 3 weeks of his show into an extended advert for Twitter and it's spread to others on Five Live and now Radio One and even when he;e on TV with Something for the Weekend.

Yes, darls3000, I noticed that as well. There are constant references to Twitter. Maybe he's just recently joined or something and it's new to him so he keeps mentioning it.

Like you said, he also goes on about it on Something for the Weekend on BBC2 on Sunday morning. There's Simon Rimmer demonstrating some new cod frying technique or something meanwhile Richard is talking about...Twitter! Still, I guess it makes a change because football usually gets a mention or two when Tim Lovejoy was presenting the programme.

As for the rest of us who don't use Twitter...

[rmorrison100]

What happen to the two of them now? Any updates?

[occy]

Sky & ITV News Presenters do Tweat too. They all do it.

[Gordon Sparks]

Everyone's at it. It's a disgrace!

Shouldn't be allowed.

www.twitter.com/SparksyOnRadio

[Vectorsum]

Hmm...

"...Twitter has become part of “citizen journalism”, the instant relaying of fact."

This would be true if by "citizen journalism" she actually meant "useless generation of data" and "fact" was a typo and should have been "rather pointless opinion" instead.

It's probably a sign of the onset of Victor Meldrew syndrome that I'd rather be accosted with a red hot poker that engage in any of the social drivel sites, but at least Twitter has received the ultimate accolade of a rant from inside der Bunker.

[rmorrison100]

I see. I will follow them on Twitter now to get updated. Thanks again!



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