So, tonight I watched the first episode of Dexter, not the VMAs, as most of my facebook friends seemed to. So, before going to bed, my boyfriend (Raz) checked his facebook on his iPhone (already, SO new age). We notice a lot of status updates mentioning Kanye West. Raz HATES Kanye West. Well, now we know something has happened. Using the updates as a jumping point, I go to a site more famous for its coverage of news on thousands of angles: Twitter.
Once I got there, I looked at the trends. Both Kanye and Taylor Swift were on there. So, I clicked Kanye. After reading through about 200 updates (44 updated while I was looking), I clicked a link someone had posted to a video of the event. Basically, Kanye interrupted Swift’s speech when she accepted Female Video of the Year award for her song. It plays on the CVS radio station we have to listen to while I’m at work. It is a TERRIBLE song…but that’s beside the point. So this cute lil blonde girl goes on stage to accept, starts her speech, and all of a sudden Kanye jumps on stage, takes the mic and says Beyonce should have won – using all of Swift’s time.
So we discuss our mutual hatred of Kanye, look at some more posts. We discuss how our Glenn Beck-loving “friend” probably loves that she gets to jump all over a man who insulted Bush once (her status actually said something about he’d only be happy if only black people won). I’m still looking at the VMA site on a different tab, trying to avoid the Madonna stuff. Then, I see a vid of Beyonce giving Swift time to speak after Beyonce won something. Go back to Twitter. Now she’s in the hot topics.
So, afraid Twitter is about to crash (147 updates under the Kanye heading less than one min after I clicked it) I start frantically looking at posts while I can. I find numerous links to an apology on Kanye’s blog. None work because the site can’t handle the influx. I eventually find someone who has remedied the problem: a screen shot on Twitpic of the “weak ass” apology. Its funny, he “apologizes” but still makes his argument. Fun.
So, deal is done. We’ve seen the whole thing unfold. I tell Raz I think it may have been a little staged (at least by MTV and Kanye) due to a few weird things. Videos were called “most commented on” instead of “highlights” or “best moments” on the official website before the show was even over. He goes to You Tube to look up the clip again. Instead, he finds that someone has already made a parody clip of Kanye interrupting an Obama speech.
All of this took maybe 20 minutes. The whole time we were doing other things: brushing teeth, advising a friend on a paper via text, etc. One time in all of this did I look to a real news site (CNN.com). They had one story on the VMAs and it talked about the planned Michael Jackson tribute that “will air tonight.” So, they got SCOOPED! Multiple times. By Twitter, Facebook and even You Tube. Someone had enough time to cut video and sound into a clip and get it on YOU TUBE before Cnn even realized it was a story that was going to get attention.
Still, I didnt go there until after I had seen both Kanye and Beyonce. Now, an hour later, my entire news feed on f/b is about the event and that’s what I’m sticking to. In fact, a friend even put her status as an all-call for someone to explain the events she obviously didnt feel like looking up herself. She knew where to go for an answer. I responded with the full story in less than 2 minutes. In all of this, I read fewer words than I’m using to explain it. This is the new age of journalism and how it works. I expect something more in depth tomorrow from real news, but they probably won’t realize that’s their job and will instead have ireports or something boring we’ve all seen already.
Its fascinating really, how much the internet has taken over my life. This is how I roll now. I’m not embarrassed about it. I had the info before most people (who didn’t watch the show) and was able to give it out. Its a good study in the mind of the young audience, and the web junkie. Have read a few pieces (status and tweet) from people upset the same kind of outrage doesn’t follow actual events, like the Congressional heckler or ongoing war, but hey..those don’t involve Beyonce’s awesome boobage. Seriously, this is what you have to compete with, actual newsworthy events. Try harder. Get those Tweets going and maybe we’ll watch a video about your refugees or escaped convicts.
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