tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post6606885458846572884..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Why Twitter is making a hash of classical musicUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-41109445058578665452011-04-28T11:29:12.764+01:002011-04-28T11:29:12.764+01:00I have kept this windmill turning in a new post ti...I have kept this windmill turning in a new post titled <b>Twitter is a massive musical echo chamber</b> -<br /><br />http://www.overgrownpath.com/2011/04/twitter-is-massive-musical-echo-chamber.htmlPliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-61117097906140743112011-04-27T16:46:05.028+01:002011-04-27T16:46:05.028+01:00Another tweat leads me to an article on the 'T...Another tweat leads me to an article on the 'Twitter echo chamber' -<br /><br />http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/beware_the_twitter_echo_chambe.php<br /><br />Among interesting things this tells us that only 74 percent of American adults use the Internet, which means that Twitter users make up about 6 percent of the adult population of the country.<br /><br />Which underlines my point about unrepresentative samples. <br /><br />But even more interesting is this point - <br /><br /><b>Frequent Twitter users can lull themselves into believing that the Twitter-verse is representative of society at large; likewise, journalists and editors can mistakenly trust that their Twitter followers are representative of their organization’s audience.</b><br /><br />So maybe it isn't such a little windmill after all...Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-69902685697418180172011-04-27T16:33:30.496+01:002011-04-27T16:33:30.496+01:00ahem... yes, I meant of course Columbia.
I should ...ahem... yes, I meant of course Columbia.<br />I should never type without having the site or post directly in front of me which I am writing about...Reinhold Behringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06053473926847833000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-42817663260767845972011-04-27T16:26:43.445+01:002011-04-27T16:26:43.445+01:00Thanks Reinhold. It is nice that a number of peopl...Thanks Reinhold. It is nice that a number of people have commented on how interesting they found the Columbia thread. In fact I noticed a reader has tweeted a link in Spanish with the Columbia story highlighted.<br /><br />I have long been fascinated by that particular piece of research and am glad that others have found useful. It is amazing what comes out of tilting at unlikely windmills.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-67693163327791758302011-04-27T16:20:04.815+01:002011-04-27T16:20:04.815+01:00(sorry, I meant PREZIs http://prezi.com/ as a pow...(sorry, I meant PREZIs http://prezi.com/ as a powerpoint replacement)Reinhold Behringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06053473926847833000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-53853912679135617542011-04-27T16:17:50.227+01:002011-04-27T16:17:50.227+01:00Halldor, this thread confirms my point. Let us rev...Halldor, this thread confirms my point. Let us revisit the comment you posted on the Holst article -<br /><br /><b>'...and yet Twitter last night was alive with classical music aficionados commenting that they'd never realised Holst was such an interesting character - and non-classical listeners trying the music for the first time. Someone I follow listened to "The Planets" for the very first time last night, and described his amazed response online. Entirely down to the Palmer documentary'.</b><br /><br />In that comment you clearly used without qualification views expressed on Twitter as somehow representative of the general reaction to the Palmer film. Now, when challenged, you backpedal to -<br /><br /><b>'I merely quoted a couple of bits of personal anecdotal evidence (gleaned off Twitter, but they might as readily have been heard down the pub or in the foyer of a concert hall) which tended (gently) to offer an alternative to the views you'd expressed in your article'.</b><br /><br />This is just one example of how anecdotal views gleaned from an unrepresentative sample on Twitter are misrepresented as having statistical validity.<br /><br />My concerns are not about the impact that this has on programme planning. It is more about the way social media has been turned into a pseudo-science by marketing and PR consultancies who are then in turn taking substantial fees from performing organisations for its use - see the link embedded in my article.<br /><br />With regard to your question -<br /><br /><b>Don't you feel that there are bigger, badder windmills that you might be tilting at?</b><br /><br /> The problem is that for every windmill I tilt at - BBC Radio 3, the Proms, artists agents, errors in the paid for press etc - there is always someone who decides there are other targets I should be aiming for. Which is why I prefer to choose my own windmills.<br /><br />Both of us have now had a tilt at this particular target, so let's now leave the floor clear for other Don Quixotes.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-27904142859170396592011-04-27T11:46:52.222+01:002011-04-27T11:46:52.222+01:00True, the briefness of social media like Twitter, ...True, the briefness of social media like Twitter, Facebook and others is problematic. However, it often is currently used as a kind of headline, with a link to the longer post - and this is quite satisfying, because it allows to capture attention and divert it to the actual discussion with deeper argumentation.<br /><br />One problem still remains: the "self-selecting sample". Which means that only people who (think that they) have to say something, do so. And the silent majority is, well, silent. But maybe this is not really a problem: in the "real" traditional media, there is also a self-selecting sample which writes: journalists. And "the rest of us" has only the choice to read - or, becoming part of another self-selecting sample and send a reader's letter. The only difference between this traditional publishing by self-selected journalists and self-selected twitterers is the required qualification: none (everybody can tweet). And that is also the great benefit of these new media. And if you do not agree with what the majority tweets, there is a solution: join the self-selected sample and tweet your opinion too! <br /><br />(I also learned from this blog post that the Challenger catastrophe was caused by Powerpoint. So from now on I will only use Precis! :))Reinhold Behringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06053473926847833000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-69748660648688635122011-04-27T11:26:05.638+01:002011-04-27T11:26:05.638+01:00"The myth that the views expressed on Twitter..."The myth that the views expressed on Twitter and other social media are representative of the whole market for classical music is spreading."<br /><br />I'm confused by why you've linked back to the Holst post - because the only reference on it to Twitter is in a comment by me in which I say no such thing.<br /><br />I merely quoted a couple of bits of personal anecdotal evidence (gleaned off Twitter, but they might as readily have been heard down the pub or in the foyer of a concert hall) which tended (gently) to offer an alternative to the views you'd expressed in your article.<br /> <br />I enjoy using online social media while being intensely aware of their limitations. Most regular users I know are just as sceptical. Twitter is indeed very limited (much like the 7 inch single...). <br /><br />I'm not aware of anyone working in the classical music sector in the UK who's building any kind of serious programming strategy based on what's currently trending on Twitter - with 18-month planning cycles for most major orchestras, it'a hard to imagine how they'd do that, even if there was anything useful to be gained by doing so! <br /><br />It's always good to challenge conventional wisdom, and interesting things come of it. My guess is that Twitter will have run its course in a couple of years; meanwhile, as you rightly say, you can ride the omnibus without buying the company (though the journey is more rewarding if you take time to talk to your fellow-passengers). <br /><br />And if your mission is to help people find their way to great music, you'd be mad not to use a currently-fashionable medium that's quick and free-of-charge. Don't you feel that there are bigger, badder windmills that you might be tilting at?Halldorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12003785622088730831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-11765358085199351732011-04-27T10:04:49.907+01:002011-04-27T10:04:49.907+01:00Brian, thanks for that. I must confess I had not s...Brian, thanks for that. I must confess I had not seen your article, but now that I have read it I commend it to others.<br /><br />In fact I do not think we have very different opinions. The thrust of your piece is to highlight the communication potential of Twitter. I do not disagree with that, and I use social media for that very purpose.<br /><br />The thrust of my piece is in a different direction - that "classical music needs to beware of the new commercial shamanism that is blurring the boundaries between communications and research to suit its own ends".<br /><br />Thanks for the contribution and thanks helping build the knowledge network.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-58824642352914364932011-04-27T09:53:58.351+01:002011-04-27T09:53:58.351+01:00This is either a keen rebuttal of my own, much mor...This is either a keen rebuttal of my own, much more positive article on classical music and Twitter, or the prologue to such. As you can see, though, I've got a different opinion (and when it's time to update the directory after the essay, Overgrownpath will no longer be oversighted out - sorry about that!). http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Feb11/Music_and_Twitter.htmBrian R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12028764860110777848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-9883443442851241642011-04-27T09:45:24.827+01:002011-04-27T09:45:24.827+01:00Predictably one of the twitterati has posed the qu...Predictably one of the twitterati has posed the question why did I tweat this post?<br /><br />http://twitter.com/#!/jessicaduchen/statuses/63158362946273280<br /><br />Well, there is the obvious point that, as explained in my post "Social media certainly has its uses as a messaging and networking platform".<br /><br />And there is also the point that to ride on the omnibus you do not need to buy the omnibus company.<br /><br />My old brain has forgotten who that quote comes from. Can anyone help?Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.com