Twitter: More Reliable than the BBC?
Oh, Inverted World! Besides being my favorite Shins Album, it’s how I’m feeling about Twitter. Allow me to explain.
I’m on twitter. I use it to connect with friends, colleagues, and American footballers who by and large are willing to have frequent interchanges with you on Twitter. One such person I have had conversations with is Jozy Altidore. Coincidentally, Jozy just recently signed with Hull on a season long loan. Where was the news first broken? Twitter!
Twitter you say? Not Sky? Not BBC? Yes, Twitter!
However fantastical it may seem, the BBC in its Breaking News section listed twitter as the source confirming Jozy’s move to Hull. Simply wild!
Jozy was the first person to let the world know he was joining Hull beating every single main steam media outlet.
First match is against chelsea subject to a work permit *wink* *wink* lol thanks for the support and love keep it coming.
Jozy broadcasted his next playing destination to his 12,000 followers on twitter. More shockingly, the media didn’t go about looking for confirmation, rather, they began to quote his twitter page. Reports from every media outlet reported the quote above instead of seeking independent confirmation.
What does this say about the changing landscape of football news? It means players are going to have a much more interesting role to play. They now deliver news about their careers and lives to the masses, and in the process, they can bypass the media all together.
Twitter has the potential to shine a light on the very secretive processes that take place in the football world. For instance, when a player is likely to move to a new club, but has multiple suitors, you generally do not know where they will sign until the deal is announced. How would you? With twitter though, a player has the ability to let the world know with a few seconds of typing and a click.
Jozy for instance, had loan suitors in Spain, Greece, France, and England. Villareal had announced that he would be moving somewhere on loan, but nobody had any indication of where he would be going. He decided it was ok to let everybody know he’s be going to England spurning advances from teams on the continent.
England early in the morning so im going to get some sleep ill tweet all day tomorrow on my bb and let you guys know whats going on!
This narrowed it down to Everton, Fulham, and Hull. Shortly thereafter, he gave everybody the news he would be joining Hull.
It’s an interesting time we live in. What will come of Twitter’s new involvement is up in the air. Surely though, Twitter looks like it will drastically change the landscape of how the media, fans, and footballers all interact.
You can follow Jozy Altidore on Twitter. You can also follow Soccerlens on Twitter for the latest updates and commentary on football.
Also See: US Football Twitter Directory
Topics: English Premier League, Everton, Football Transfers, Fulham, Hull City, La Liga, Villarreal
Football News 24/7
Fascinating, indeed. How long will it be, though, before footballers are gagged like their American hand(foot)ball brethren? Ultimately the news organizations, especially the private/profit-oriented ones like Sky, ESPN, et al, will likely put pressure on the clubs to include confidentiality and exclusive press release rights in player contracts. The clubs would likely be open to such suggestions, anyway, given the recent Bent/Spurs controversy.
August 8th, 2009 @ 20:31Unless footballers are gagged then, yep players and agents will start to engineer moves through Twitter. Darren Bent use the medium to great affect.
Other more mainstream websites will start to suffer because they’re unable to release info as quickly and gain such a moticated following in the same way that Twitter can….
August 9th, 2009 @ 10:08How can you be sure that a player is using twitter though? Could it not just be a spotty teenager with nothing to do during the school holidays?
In the Altidore case it looks legit but it’s difficult to determine whether the profiles of the likes of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard are the real deal.
August 10th, 2009 @ 12:09It seems Tottenham were on the recieving end of some nega-twittity too with the recent transfer of Darren Bent to Sunderland. They have now announced that they are considering a Twitter ban. Other clubs could follow suit and reduce the chances of “leaks”.
August 10th, 2009 @ 13:29Players being gagged seems likely. More imaginative clubs could look to actually utilise twitter, rather than forbid it. Potentially players could be (new) media trained to use twitter etc – if it was carefully managed it could be an interesting PR exercise. As football and footballers get more and more distant from the paying supporter, this could narrow that gap and even encouage greater loyalty.
But, this would stop the comedy of comments such as Bent’s and once new media is ‘managed’ it can lose all its fun and can be seen through, if not done properly. But if the real voice of the player got through, twitter etc could help clubs, rather than be a PR disaster.
August 10th, 2009 @ 15:22