Headline Marketing for Twits

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Have you noticed a big media push for Twitter, over the last few months? Articles, stories, opinions... For and against the use of Twitter but mostly emphasising that Twitter is the hot choice of your favourite celebrities.

Why would we use Twitter? To keep up with the latest, just-breaking news, apparently. (This despite its origins as a social networking -- gossip amongst friends -- communication tool.) Each article includes an example or two of how quickly news has been spread by Twitter.

DJ signed off on Twitter

There, doesn't that headline give you the feeling that some person -- the "DJ" in question -- used Twitter to make an important announcement? Wrong! Okay, it's just the Gossip pages of The West (31 August 2009) but still... that is a very misleading headline!

"DJ signed off on Twitter". The DJ -- disk jockey -- in question was found dead. Did he make a pre-death announcement via Twitter? Well, no... How did he sign off on Twitter? Well... his "last know remarks on ... Twitter" were three days before his body was found. Were those last remarks relevant to his death, to his signing off? Not as far as we are told. Why is Twitter mentioned in the headline?!

As soon as the man was found dead, his "celebrity friends" rushed to Twitter, to gain quick publicity for themselves, as quickly as possible. A kind interpretation would say that this explains how he was "signed off on Twitter".

A less kind interpretation would say that the headline invented the significance of Twitter in the death. Free marketing for Twitter? Or just a lazy use of the software fad du jour? Who knows.

And -- if I hadn't been so annoyed that I posted this blog -- I would have added, Who cares!

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