Social Media as a Lobbying Phenomenon

The Daily Mail has long been reputed as having poor editorial standards. Indeed, today's edition was marked by a fresh, controversial example and a new low by the paper. The printing of Jan Moir's article, Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's Death illustrates poor judgement and underlying homophobic opinions that exist within the paper. In short, Moir moves from the premise of 'suspicious' circumstances surrounding Gately's death to a denouncement of civil partnerships and a 'dangerous lifestyle'.

The interesting phenomenon surrounding this article's publication is the Internet's ability to mass lobby. It seems that Jan Moir, who lacks a Twitter account, may have bitten off more than she can chew with this publication.

Only until a few years ago, the idea that like-minded liberals could share information, publications, comments and opinions instantaneously was unfathomable. Now, with the assistance of social media, opinions spread like wildfire through the web.

"Tweets" on Twitter started early in the morning before some big influencers added to the debate. For those of you unaware, Stephen Fry has near 850,000 followers on Twitter. That's a greater population of world citizens following him than there are people in Luxembourg and Iceland combined. Twitter works so that everyone following Fry receives his messages so long as they are connected to the service via a computer or phone. At approximately 12GMT, Fry tweeted the following in reference to Moir's article:

"I gather a repulsive nobody writing in a paper no one of any decency would be seen dead with has written something loathesome and inhumane."

With some independent investigative work and links provided by Fry to various other online blogs who had commented on the article in the following hours, it soon become obvious who the target of controversy was.

Unluckily for Jan Moir she has probably barely heard, nor contemplated using Twitter, but the service allows a worldwide audience to comment and complain about her article of contempt, sharing links to the Press Complaints Commission directly. It was only a matter of time until Moir realised the backlash she had caused and issued an apology through press release. A sensitive subject had been poked at, the dignity of a man's death scathed, and a family's peace disturbed by conjecture on the eve of their son's funeral. Furthermore, a global audience witnessed her cynicism and ignorance.

The question is, will the lobbying by Fry et al through their tweets mean that disciplinary action for The Daily Mail and Moir comes sooner and more efficiently than in the past. Only time will tell. That said, social media provides an interesting new tool to champion expression and agenda. And the phenomenon also manages to make issues like this hit the national news, highlighting the negatives of intolerance.

One negative consequence of the lobbying is that The Daily Mail has received so much traffic to an article that should not have even passed editorial standards that they must be profiteering from advertising in some sad way. We can only hope that in the future online news media sources are not rewarded for their indecency.

As the day wore on Daily Mail pulled advertising from their websites. M&S and Nestlé in particular objected to their products being placed beside the advert for the reason that it . However, findaproperty.com, a part of the Daily Mail group, reappeared beside the controversial article later in the day, which had since changed its title.

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Update 15:31 - Daily Mail changes title of article in attempt to reduce backlash - Title now reads "A strange, lonely and troubling death." Key offensive conjecture still remain
Update 16:09 - Google Ads still remain by offensive article allowing Daily Mail to continue to profiteer from online traffic.
Update 17:00 - Charlie Brooker and Guardian cleverly add to the online debate.
Update 17:30 - Stephen Fry quotes Moir comments, "[It's] mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has homophobic and bigoted undertones.” You be the judge of that.
Update: 18:45 - Findaproperty.com advertisement reappears beside advert. Daily Mail profits from infamy.
Update: 19:20 - BBC reports complaints to PCC "approaching a record" tonight after Moir fallout.
Update: 17/10 - PCC adds Moir specific link.