This week, the Toronto media (not just sports media either, but the news media as well) have been going crazy over tweets from Chris Bosh’s Twitter account.
The fury really hit the fan on Wednesday when one Toronto news radio station might as well have changed their name to “The Chris Bosh Twitter Monitor.” You’d think nothing else was happening in Toronto that day (I mean it’s not like mayoral candidate George Smitherman fought back against “disgusting” comments made by fellow mayoral candidate Rob Ford or anything).
Instead, every 10 minutes, they quoted from Bosh’s Twitter page — and they weren’t alone, here’s just a sampling from around the Toronto media this week doing the exact same thing (searching the words Chris Bosh and Twitter in Google News turns up nearly 200 results).
Here are some of the Twitter updates that caused the ruckus to begin with:
Been wanting to ask. Where should I go next season and why?
(April 30)
Ok… Let me rephrase the question. Should I stay or should I go?
(April 30)
Sitting here watching the games wishing I was playing. I wonder if that MVP trophy is heavy?
(May 4)
Just to be clear. I never said that I’m not considering staying in Toronto.
(May 6)
Oh and he changed his location from Toronto to “everywhere.” And on his bio, he took off the fact that he is the Raptors captain. What else do you really need to go with this story?
What’s that? You should actually try to talk to Bosh or his manager? Well why would you ever do that? It’s not like reporting on a story solely based on what you read online has never gotten anyone in trouble before.
The way the media has been reporting it, via Bosh’s Twitter account and his online activity, is more how like a teenage girl keeps an eye on the guy she has a crush on than real reporting. It’s like the “Will-Mats-Sundin-give-up-his-no-trade-clause?” of the NHL trade deadline from a couple years ago (which that summer turned into, “Will-Mats-Sundin-play-in-the-NHL/Toronto-this-year?”).
Sure, it’s likely Bosh would not have made a comment on his posts. But I’m sure someone in his management would have, or would have at least provided a no comment, which would have landed a bit of cred to the story actually being a story.
And it is important to remember, that sports journalism can be like this a lot — especially when it comes to what is going on with a favourite player (it’s much like celebrity entertainment journalism that way). And in the world of the Internet — no media outlet is going to want to wait until there actually is a decision to report on the story (see Favre, Brett for more examples of this).
This isn’t an attack on sports journalism at all, rather it’s a critique at how easy it can be to just use the Internet to make a story when one’s not really there — yet. And that can be tough water to tread (just ask Chicago’s NBC who fell for an online piece of sarcasm about the Vancouver Canucks).
But above all that, it’s lazy journalism. It’s giving the masses what they want when nothing is there. I don’t want to here about what is going on with Chris Bosh — until we know what is going on with Chris Bosh.
A Twitter feed is not the Holy Grail of information — even if he is CB4.
Leave Chris Bosh’s Twitter account alone!
This week, the Toronto media (not just sports media either, but the news media as well) have been going crazy over tweets from Chris Bosh’s Twitter account.
The fury really hit the fan on Wednesday when one Toronto news radio station might as well have changed their name to “The Chris Bosh Twitter Monitor.” You’d think nothing else was happening in Toronto that day (I mean it’s not like mayoral candidate George Smitherman fought back against “disgusting” comments made by fellow mayoral candidate Rob Ford or anything).
Instead, every 10 minutes, they quoted from Bosh’s Twitter page — and they weren’t alone, here’s just a sampling from around the Toronto media this week doing the exact same thing (searching the words Chris Bosh and Twitter in Google News turns up nearly 200 results).
Here are some of the Twitter updates that caused the ruckus to begin with:
(April 30)
(April 30)
(May 4)
(May 6)
Oh and he changed his location from Toronto to “everywhere.” And on his bio, he took off the fact that he is the Raptors captain. What else do you really need to go with this story?
What’s that? You should actually try to talk to Bosh or his manager? Well why would you ever do that? It’s not like reporting on a story solely based on what you read online has never gotten anyone in trouble before.
The way the media has been reporting it, via Bosh’s Twitter account and his online activity, is more how like a teenage girl keeps an eye on the guy she has a crush on than real reporting. It’s like the “Will-Mats-Sundin-give-up-his-no-trade-clause?” of the NHL trade deadline from a couple years ago (which that summer turned into, “Will-Mats-Sundin-play-in-the-NHL/Toronto-this-year?”).
Sure, it’s likely Bosh would not have made a comment on his posts. But I’m sure someone in his management would have, or would have at least provided a no comment, which would have landed a bit of cred to the story actually being a story.
And it is important to remember, that sports journalism can be like this a lot — especially when it comes to what is going on with a favourite player (it’s much like celebrity entertainment journalism that way). And in the world of the Internet — no media outlet is going to want to wait until there actually is a decision to report on the story (see Favre, Brett for more examples of this).
This isn’t an attack on sports journalism at all, rather it’s a critique at how easy it can be to just use the Internet to make a story when one’s not really there — yet. And that can be tough water to tread (just ask Chicago’s NBC who fell for an online piece of sarcasm about the Vancouver Canucks).
But above all that, it’s lazy journalism. It’s giving the masses what they want when nothing is there. I don’t want to here about what is going on with Chris Bosh — until we know what is going on with Chris Bosh.
A Twitter feed is not the Holy Grail of information — even if he is CB4.