Recently I wrote about the dawn of the journo Twitter apocalypse, the idea that the micro-blogging platform will somehow have a considerable impact on the journalistic form. I have my doubts. And even if the possibility is there for Twitter to be a tool of the journalistic trade, I find myself wondering whether it should.
Case in point: it seems Ashton Kutcher is in a public sprint to 1 million followers with CNN’s Breaking News feed. The former is sitting at 888,000 followers, according to this AP news story. The latter: 937,000. Britney Spears, by the way, is somewhere in between. But as much as I can’t help a natural irritation to Kutcher’s response to all of this, I also can’t deny what he offers in closing.
From the AP:
The 31-year-old actor recently threw down the gauntlet, challenging CNN and its founder, Ted Turner. In a Web video posted earlier this week, Kutcher said he would ding-dong-ditch Turner’s house if he beat CNN to 1 million. (For those unfamiliar with the classic adolescent prank, ding-dong-ditch is when you ring someone’s doorbell and run away.)
“I find it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter,” Kutcher said in a video he posted on qik.com. “I just thought that was kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media.”
Preach on. Speaking of all of this, has CNN’s news coverage on the whole become a lot more akin to a big top show over the last year-and-a-half to anyone else? Not that it wasn’t close to the absurd already but lately I feel like my senses are ambushed every time I turn it on.
(Ironically, I’m off to share this post on Twitter.)
Comments
3 responses to “More on the Twitter apocalypse: Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN”
“I just thought that was kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media.”
I think it says more about the state of our society,and especially young people.
We have a youth obsessed with celebrity. That’s the reason why Ashton has so many followers.
Not to mention that Web 2.0 is very much a young persons game.
I think most intelligent people would rather get their news updates in more than 140 characters.
That doesn’t stop CNN and other outlets from embracing the medium, though.
This twitter nonsense makes me want to vomit.