I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact of social media on news coverage lately. Watching BBC Question Time with the BNP party leader Dick Nick Griffin, and seeing Twitter mentioned as the first way of contacting the show (ahead of email, web etc), meant I had to write about it.
I love the way people are more in control of the news now more than ever. Last month Carter-Ruck a law firm tried to threaten and sue into silence media outlets who wanted to report on Oil-traders Trafigura. Twitter users responded in droves, the “hashtag” (which is how you label something as part of a movement on twitter) #trafigura blew up, millions of tweets, multiple blog posts and finally the injunctions promised were overturned. People made sure the news was reported.
Then yesterday Dick Nick Griffin – a man who I cannot even begin to describe, as even a potty mouth like myself doesn’t have words strong enough to describe the hatred he spews – was on BBC Question Time (a political panel show). The BBC has taken a lot of flack for having him on, but as his party has won a couple of MEP seats the BBC’s charter demands that he be given a platform like all other credible parties. Like it or not the BNP is a political party in the British system. Like it or not they’ve won seats. And like it or not there are non-racists who are starting to find commonality in what the BNP is pushing. It’s not right, but it’s real.
Anyway, there’s been a couple of movements/memes on twitter that have really shown what the public actually think of the BNP leader. The first yesterday was a movement to refer to Dick Nick Griffin as #fathitler. I found this amusing. Then Casseteboy went and remixed out the appearance on QT, in a brilliant piece on Youtube (embedded below – if you’re on fbook and you can’t see it, take the 1 minute and check out the video). If that wasn’t enough today there’s a hashtag #ijustsawnickgriffin where Twitter users are tweeting I saw Dick Nick Griffin… here are some of my favourites:
#ijustsawnickgriffin coming straight outta Compton with a crazy motherf#k*r named Ice Cube
#ijustsawnickgriffin in Mr Jerk ordering curried goat
#Ijustsawnickgriffin only eating the white bits in Oreo cookies!!!!!
The YouTube clip:
He’s become targeted as the joke he really is through social media and I love it.
Sure we can protest, sure we can throw eggs, but I believe the twitter treatment of Dick Nick Griffin is the best way of exposing him for what he is… a joke.
Bigger picture; the news isn’t the same anymore. A few people in power can no longer dictate what is news worthy and what treatment the news should receive. People are being united through social media and are able to force the news to be transparent and fair like it was meant to be and I feel privileged to be a part of this change.
