Twhere do we go from here

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Gary Andrews

Twitter, it’s fair to say, has seen its profile soar in the UK media in the last couple of weeks, thanks, in no small part, to a growing band of celebrities who’ve joined the site.

Now, if you’re a celeb, you’re no one if you’re not on Twitter (ok, not quite. Don’t take this statement literally). Jamie Oliver swung by today. Phil Schofield has been Tweeting away from the set of This Morning [1]. The Daily Mail has started republishing assorted celebrity Tweets as articles. And swathes of new users have started signing up to the site, prompted by the celebrity Twitterers and the media coverage.

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Gary has been busy but he’s still found time to be elsewhere

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Gary Andrews

He’ll also stop talking about himself in the third person now.

Over at Soccerlens I wax lyrical about the 10 greatest ever drawn FA Cup ties and the subsequent replays.

The words “You’re a bit of a sad geek, aren’t you” may be used in conjunction with this article. You’d probably be right.

I’ve also managed to irritate Manchester United fans. Makes a change from having Manchester City fans chasing after me with pitchforks. I’ve actually got nothing much against either club. They both do things well and not so well. And things are never dull with either of them…

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Gary Elsewhere

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Gary Andrews

Over at Soccerlens, I lament the current state of football and try to give a few reasons why it’s gone a bit, well, wrong.

I’d also like to point out this was written before I went to Dagenham to watch Exeter play last night, which was one of those games that reminds you just why you love football.

Nonetheless, the sentiment of the article stands. I’m probably going to be chased from city to city with burning pitchforks, mind, as I’ve criticised most Premier League clubs. It’s not that I have anything against the clubs per se, it’s just part of a wider malaise.

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Note to aspiring media people: learn the workings behind t’interweb

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Gary Andrews

Charles Arthur’s one piece of advice to aspiring journalists: learn to code. To which I’d say “Oh, God. Yes. Do.”

Ok, there are probably other pieces of advice that are equally as useful. But in the current climate, it’s as good a place to start as any.

There are many reasons why this makes sense. Like it or not, the media is increasingly looking for jack-of-all trades. Like it or not, there won’t be as many journalists around to do the work required of them. If you can work across as many platforms as possible (I’d also advise journalists to learn TV production techniques as well) then you have an advantage.

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This may actually be the point I finally shut up about Twitter and journalism

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Gary Andrews

A point, I think, has been reached. Quite where this point sites and what exactly it signifies is perhaps not quite the issue. But it is a point that has been reached nonetheless.

That point is, as Adam Tinworth says is moving “from something that is used by the social media cognoscenti amongst journalists, to something that is rapidly spreading amongst the more web aware hack.”

Although Twitter’s use as a breaking news source isn’t exactly a new thing [1], with a growing number of users and an increasing number of both journalists and users all over the globe, it’s now reached the point where it’s the first place people are looking when something breaks.

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Moldovans that don’t exist

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Gary Andrews

At Soccerlens, Fredorrachi unravels the story of Masal Bugduv, a Moldovan teenage football sensation who was linked with a move to Arsenal and listed in The Times’ top 50 young footballers to watch. And who doesn’t actually exist.

Ok, so this one is quite amusing (and not on the same level as a lot of the poorly-written science stories). But it does show how good the net is at picking up and correcting these sort of things. And the importance of a good sub-editor. Although, in fairness, this was a pretty well put together hoax.

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Foreign players and markets

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Gary Andrews

Earlier today, on an Exeter City mailing list I subscribe to (yes, such things exist), Mike Blackstone posed the following question:

“What if the only players who were allowed to play in the Premier and Football League were to be born in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern ireland and the Republic of ireland? Would this not make the respective international teams stronger (eventually) as more home grown players
came through the ranks?”

I started replying, the realised it was turning into an epic consideration of all things foreign, football politics, and quite possibly ill-thought through economics of the sport. So, what the hell, I’ll post it on here.

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Twitter dichotomy

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Gary Andrews

The Daily Mail: How boring – celebrities sign up on Twitter to reveal the most mundane aspects of their lives.

Michael Litman finds his new job via Twitter.

While Web 1.0 media is busy having a pop at Twitter and other social media sites, Web 2.0 media is busy putting these sites to practical use. Like job hunting, crowdsourcing and flat swopping.

It’s a good job there’s not some kind of credit crunch on in an industry that’s not quite sure where it’s going or even what the future will hold as said industry moves onto assorted platforms that many in that industry can’t or won’t understand.

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