Participating in Democracy and #qanda isn't bad! (Are you listening Lawrence)
Wow, I’ve really made it. One of my tweets made page 8 of The Age (31/72010). Pity I haven’t brought the paper in years and it was a friend (with a free copy) who found my name in it.
First point, and really it is so small as to be trivial, The article reads “But worse has followed. On ABC TV’s Q&A political panel The Worm was replaced by a series of idiot remarks from the Twitterverse and began less than a minute are the panel was introduced.” Pity really that Monday 26 April was the first episode of Q and A to have live tweets, so I wouldn’t infer that this is brand new. So I am going to draw the conclusion that Lawrence Money is not a regular Q and A watcher.
“Great panel” was the pointless first tweet from emilybweeb.”
Sure, it may have been pointless, but why is her opinion any less valuable than anyone else’s. She may have genuinely thought it was a great panel, why is she not allowed to have and yet more importantly share this view.
On the Q and A Website they state.. “Q&A is about encouraging people to engage with politics and society.” But Lawrence seems to be of the opinion that if it is not funny or relevant to him, it should be derided.
… “ A minute later came wolfcat: “Based on last night’s debate has anyone woken up yet?” Hilarious, huh?”
The Panel was taking about the debate and how boring it was… so yes it was funny. Why was it funny, because it was in context and timely. But I guess when you are writing a static column a week after the event you’re going to miss the joke. (Don’t worry I am laughing at you now if it is any consolation)
Well see this is the thing, like the worm, the tweets are a sentiment tracker, but unlike the worm tweets add context and meaning as well.
“and this from unsongsongs:” Obviously the cut backs in The Age mean that they can no longer afford proof readers, the username is @unsungsongs. (Hint for your style guide as well. You should refer to users including the @ symbol)
By the end of the evening that episode of #QandA 14,492 Tweets from 2,941 contributors. (Source: @tweeveetv), so it is an active community trying to participate in democracy.
Also it is not the first time the ABC has had tweets on live TV, that honour goes to News Breakfast, which has been doing them (off and on) for the last two years. But hey, never let the facts get in the way of a rant. Nor should we look at places like Current TV who ran live moderated tweets during the Obama campaign debates.
Now of course, social media isn’t for everyone. Nor is it the solution to all the world’s problems, but it is a tool, (yes even sometimes tools use it), but it is a tool never the less.
Times have changed and Twitter and other Social Media platforms give people a chance to interact across the country and often the world in real time when talking about serious issues or even trivial ones. Both issues are what makes us, us. Not everyone is highbrow all the time, nor are we serious all the time. Even when it comes to serious issues a joke can be a way of breaking through the static of disinformation and disinterest. Perhaps if more people interacted this campaign wouldn’t be so dull after all.
