The past two days clearly demonstrated to me the influence of Twitter.
Jan Moir wrote an article for the Daily Mail on the death of Stephen Gately. The former Boyzone member had died in his sleep, and basically she was bashing him because he was gay. The article was originally titled, ‘Why there was nothing ‘natural’ about Stephen Gately’s death.’, but has since been changed to ‘A strange, lonely and troubling death.’
It was picked up by Stephen Fry, with a huge Twitter following. And before long, it received worldwide attention. So much so that Moir had to issue a statement to say that she was the target of an orchestrated campaign. Ads were withdraw from Moir’s online article and more than 1,000 complains were lodged with the Press Complaints Commission.
Such is the impact of Twitter.
More articles on this :
Why there was nothing ‘human’ about Jan Moir’s column on the death of Stephen Gately
Jan Moir of the Daily Mail speaks out after Gately uproar
And the article that caused it the uproar : Why there was nothing ‘natural’ about Stephen Gately’s death.