Tweet like a politician … ideally, thinking about how it’ll be read and misread
Tweet Tools like Twitter and Facebook can make a politician into a one person media outlet, broadcasting what they hear, see and think without the mediation of the traditional broadcast and print media. Gone are the days of being off-the-record and silent until a reporter turns up to note your words. Politicians can be online [...] more »
Gerry Adams ‘self hacking’ his way through the Irish Twittersphere?
Tweet So Alan was on the View last night talking Tweets. In fact talking Gerry’s Tweets. I have to confess I’ve no particularly original thoughts to share on the matter, other than to say that if my memory serves correctly this is Gerry’s second out on the big Twitter fun ride. It’s got him numbers, [...] more »
Blessed are the newsbreakers; but which ones can you trust in the age of Twitter?
Tweet There’s a number of great pieces online about where new authority is emerging to challenge the older models, particularly in the wake of the US election and superstorm Sandy. Forbes had this to say in response to a mainstream anchor thanking people for ‘helping out’: News flash for my local news anchors: the “amateurs” [...] more »
Social media is about social agency, not ‘just’ gossip, entertainment or power…
Tweet If you didn’t hear it, it is still very much worth listening to this week’s moral maze programme on BBC Radio Four… The whole thing is worth listening to (even Michael Buerk’s introduction, which almost visibly drips with contempt)… Padraig Reidy from Index On Censorship, probably came as close as any of the respondents [...] more »
Doctored twitter, Toolooz and RTÉ
Tweet Awfully grateful for thoughts about a little piece I did for yesterday’s Irish Independent. I quote Mick (and draw on this earlier post on Slugger), mention McGuinness4Pres, Toolooz, drunken taoisigh, and ArmA II, and make three jokes. I’m very grateful for your thoughts, as ever! more »
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It Will Be On The Internet
Tweet I walk past the Occupy Belfast protesters opposite St. Anne’s Cathedral nearly every day. It would be easy to sneer at them. They have some rather nice tents out of Decathlon, that well known bastion of anti-capitalism, and they seem to have a lot of fun. Not only are they not occupying anything more [...] more »
Politicians and Twitter: “It gives me great pleasure…” “No it doesnae…”
Tweet I like this piece from Aine Kerr on Storyful… It’s a timely kick at those MPs who routinely get crossed off the list of anyone who has better things to do with their Twitter accounts than read glib statements of the, erm, ‘bleedin obvious’… In particular, the YouTube clip at the beginning… It’s worth [...] more »
Bogus Twitter accounts, plausible deniability, and the use of unqualified leads…
Tweet As Chris notes, no one in current Sinn Fein will cry any tears over the way the Irish media tripped over itself to gobble up the fake story of Sean Gallagher and the cheque that never was… Update: It seems that the @Martin4Prez2011 (official) & @McGuinness4Pres (bogus) were born on the same day. But, [...] more »
Stay classy, Carál…
Tweet Good heavens! You’re the culture minister… UTV has the censored version. And here’s the other half of the “satirical exchange”. more »
Twitter v #NOTW: the growing power of social media?
Tweet Over on the BBC, Rory Cellan-Jones has some background on an interesting aspect of the News of the World story. For a while now, traditional news outlets have been in competition (of sorts) with social media to feed a developed appetite for rolling news. However, as Cellan-Jones has flagged, this story appears to be bringing the print and [...] more »
Social Media and the Assembly Election
Tweet A number of people have referred to this week’s Assembly Election as the “Twitter Election”. This can be looked at in a number of ways: the number of politicians and parties on Twitter/Facebook, the number of journalists now using social media, as well as members of the public discussing politics and election through these [...] more »
Tweeting Fishy Minister makes it a Twitter election after all?
Tweet I’m not sure that the scales fell from the DUP leader’s eyes, but when Peter Robinson fell into his fish pond this afternoon, it certainly gave us all a laugh. And by the string of tweets that followed, his iPhone wasn’t in his pocket when he slipped. 1) The Good Lord punishes any desecration [...] more »
Take that (Mulley makes a bad call?)
Tweet As the north of Ireland’s twitterati attempt to trend #notinmyname the undisputed king of Irish social media says: Ah yes, a hashtag on twitter, take that Omagh murderers more »
Finalised Twitter hashtags for Election (#AE11) constituencies
Tweet Okay, a big thanks to Dee Harvey at BBCNI for her work on these. She’s tested them all now so that there should not be any broken or misleading tweets on the constituency hashtags quoted below. If you are now scratching your heading and asking yourself ‘what’s Fealty on about now’, hashtags are a [...] more »
What’s the point of journalists any more?
Tweet Though Saturday is largely an Unconference and the attendees will be fixing the agenda and timetable on the day (with a bit of healthy pre-event lobbying on the Uservoice site), I’m going to be chairing one whole-event session after lunch on the whole question of the Fourth Estate. We’ve got a democracy that relies [...] more »
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Books
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The Creative Class and Northern Ireland
Tweet As part of NICVA’s series of masterclasses from its Centre for Economic Empowerment project, there was a morning seminar on the topic of the “creative class” (as popularised by Richard Florida) and its applicability to Northern Ireland. The agenda was to: Explain Richard Florida’s idea of the “creative class” and the link between economic [...] read our review »
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Hearing the Other Voice from the Grave: Why Should we Listen to David Ervine’s Stories?
Tweet Ed Moloney’s Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland has received considerable attention in the press and in the public realm since its publication earlier this year. Although the book relates the experiences of the Provisional IRA’s Brendan Hughes and the PUP/UVF’s David Ervine, much of the discussion has focused on Hughes’ [...] read our review » -
Graphic portrayals: Northern Ireland, graphic novels and the peace process
Tweet Dr Gordon Gillespie, a researcher at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, gave a presentation on “Graphic Portrayals: Northern Ireland, Graphic Novels and the Peace Process”, at the Linen Hall Library. Gordon started with a clarification that he was going to talk about graphic novels/comic books, not cartoons, and material that [...] read our review »
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