Rick Nieman, presenter of a chat show at WNL, sounds the alarm at Eva Jinek. The presenter believes that the media inflates the prevailing opinion on Twitter far too much.
It really bothers Rick Nieman that the media is constantly producing articles based on a number of opinions on Twitter. He makes a serious appeal to Eva Jinek’s talk show table to put a stop to this. “Which would also help, I sometimes think, if we as mainstream media would take Twitter a little less seriously.”
Twitter overrated?
Twitter is real overrated, says Rick. “In my entire circle of friends, family and acquaintances, maybe two people occasionally use Twitter and one of them is a journalist. Twitter is a bit of a plaything for journalists and politicians who sit and watch each other all day.”
He continues: “Then I hear on Radio 1: ‘What does Twitter think?’ Or six people think something about a TV program and then a newspaper makes a whole piece of it, like: ‘Well, there was a lot of criticism of it.’”
Eva also critical
Eva Jinek also hates Twitter. “It is also not statistically representative of society.”
Rick: “No, of course not. Sorry, I’m really getting worked up about this. David Chapelle, the comedian, once said: ‘Twitter isn’t a real place.’”
Eva: “It’s true.”
Ronald: “And yet we treat it like a real place.”
‘It cleans up’
Eva: “I stopped looking at it seven years ago and I can tell you: it clears up a lot. Everyone said to me: that is not possible for a journalist, but I think I have never missed the news at all.”
She especially thinks the threats on Twitter go too far. “There is a structural problem in society that the moment someone says something you don’t like, you immediately threaten them with death. What is the solution to this kind of stupidity?”
A solution
There is really only one solution, replies Özcan Akyol. “I have always said: if you want to use a certain platform, do so with a kind of DidiD-like construction. That you log in and at least the person who offers the platform knows who is behind your account.”
He concludes: “Then you can still operate anonymously on that account, but when you misbehave, people can more easily report it, because then you can be traced.”
