Lately, I've been hanging out on Twitter while I'm at work. I'll answer viewer questions, solicit feedback on topics, etc. Through several months of listening and learning, my station's account has more than 500 followers.
I realize my station is not the only one to actively use the service; many other television stations, newspapers and even national media outlets use it, whether as a headlines feed or to receive feedback.
That said, Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn, for those of you on Twitter) -- probably the most visible media personality on Twitter -- annoys the crap out of me. I applaud his and CNN's use of Twitter and other social media to solicit viewer feedback and drive the show; however, I also think he comes off as completely unprofessional through his tweets, which could give other media on Twitter a bad name.
How is he unprofessional? Let's examine some of his tweets:
GOP GOES ALONG WITH DEMS ON STIMULUS, ARE U SHOCKED??? (link)
Apparently, Sanchez's CAPSLOCK key was stuck for a few tweets; as far as web etiquette goes, he was shouting at his followers.
The above post is also fairly indicative of his posting style (well, besides the CAPSLOCK). Here's another:
chris brown and rehanna, i find abuse begets abuse angle fascinating. my staff so so, what do you guys think? (link)
Now, this is a somewhat intelligent comment, but I find it negated by the fact that he misspelled Rihanna's name. This is fine for the average person; however, Sanchez ought to be held to a higher standard. Misspelling someone's name is tantamount to making a fact error.
Nevertheless, spelling isn't the only thing that annoys me about his tweets. He also doesn't bother to properly punctuate or capitalize. Now, I will admit that I do, on occasion, find myself omitting punctuation marks or abbreviating words -- usually when I find myself approaching the 140-character limit. Sanchez, on the other hand, never capitalizes (unless his CAPSLOCK key is stuck), always abbreviates and rarely punctuates, even when he has more than a few characters to spare.
To me, this sort of writing oozes laziness. I would understand if he were sending text messages from a cell phone; he's not. I believe this sort of writing begets more bad writing. Once again, Sanchez needs to set an example for his followers.
It's embarrassing when his followers respond to his tweets with ones more grammatically correct.
The purpose of this rant? I hope more media twitter-ers will pay more attention to their image online. Tweeting from the web is no excuse "4 u 2 wrt lyk this." It doesn't make you seem more hip or whatever -- it makes you seem stupid.
And, Sanchez, on the off chance that you happen upon this blog, please consider capitalizing words in your tweets. What you do reflects upon the rest of us, and while you've done an admirable job integrating social media with a national broadcast, changing your tweet style would promote a higher level of professionalism, which would help the rest of us.
Just a thought.Labels: journalism, rant, social media, twitter