| New columnist in The Times... 12:11 - Jan 31 with 1503 views | WarfieldHoop |
None other than our very own Joey Barton! |  | | |  |
| New columnist in The Times... on 12:15 - Jan 31 with 1479 views | wittle |
christ run for cover warnock | | | |
| New columnist in The Times... on 12:16 - Jan 31 with 1475 views | adhoc_qpr |
Is he allowed to use more than 140 characters? [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| New columnist in The Times... on 12:44 - Jan 31 with 1403 views | HollowayRanger |
oh god anyone else getting fed up its all me me me !!!
just stick to playing football! |  |
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| New columnist in The Times... on 12:52 - Jan 31 with 1393 views | Essex_Ranger |
| New columnist in The Times... on 12:44 - Jan 31 by HollowayRanger |
oh god anyone else getting fed up its all me me me !!!
just stick to playing football! |
Funny because nobody said anything about Warnock doing his Indy column whilst we didn't win a game for 10 games. Maybe he should have just stuck to management. |  | | |
| New columnist in The Times... on 12:57 - Jan 31 with 1379 views | windsorhoop |
| New columnist in The Times... on 12:44 - Jan 31 by HollowayRanger |
oh god anyone else getting fed up its all me me me !!!
just stick to playing football! |
Doesn't bother me at all. In fact im happy with the free publicity we will receive. | | | |
| New columnist in The Times... on 13:37 - Jan 31 with 1322 views | QPunkR |
Why do we need publicity? |  |
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| New columnist in The Times... on 13:44 - Jan 31 with 1303 views | toemasher |
Funny that, He is also writing for the big issue. Last weeks was all about how he had been offered lucrative deals to write for the papers but would rather write for the Big Issue???? |  | | |
| New columnist in The Times... on 14:03 - Jan 31 with 1254 views | HantsR |
More than 140 characters here, sorry
:Last year I realised no journalist was going to tell my tale truthfully. So I’m doing it myself
I am watching Cromwell, starring Richard Harris and Sir Alec Guinness, on my iPad. Set in England in 1645, it’s a fascinating watch, with meetings, discussions and lots of battles. But here’s the thing: the chain of command was a nightmare. Communication required horseback journeys from Cambridge to Oxford to London to Naseby.
Fast forward to 1876, Alexander Graham Bell is making the very first telephone call. Bell had been competing to win the race to invent and patent this technology and to connect the world. In essence the world has just become a much smaller place. The age of instant communication has begun.
This brings us to the 20th century and the age of computing. This is an epoch when the world is reduced in size once again, but more dramatically than in any previous century. Why? Because of the internet. As of 2011, more than 2.1 billion people, nearly a third of Earth’s population, use the net.
It’s January 2012 and the world has shrunk yet again, for one simple reason: social media. I started tweeting last May having become increasingly disillusioned with the national media: their portrayal of me, their portrayal of football, their portrayal of the world. It was not completely false, but it was terribly distorted. Not that I was a saint. I had been guilty of various crimes and misdemeanours, mainly because of drunken stupidity. I take responsibility for all that. I have been punished and rightly so.
But Twitter gave me an opportunity that I could not refuse. After years of interviews, it became clear that no journalist was willing to tell my tale. Anything I said, anything I did, was given an angle to fit in with the bad-boy image. Maybe they would be ridiculed by their peers or editors? I mean, someone would look a fool, wouldn’t they? I was an enigma. I was a guy who gave interviews that were totally contrary to expectation. I was able to string a sentence together and debate issues that went beyond Nuts magazine – and, yes, also capable at the time of mindless acts of violence.
They projected someone who was not the real me: it was the me that the press wanted to project. It seemed easier to interview me with the story pre-written. The only quotes that made it into print were those chosen to stir controversy. I realised that it was time to take control of my own output, to become the master of my own destiny. No longer would I allow journalistic interpretation to run wild without any accountability. I didn’t have many choices. I decided to tweet!
At first, it was liberating. No longer could the media print a story about me without my having the opportunity to reply. I now had my own network, my own way of communicating directly. I no longer had to rely on interviewers to portray me fairly. I could now interact directly with people without the intervention of gatekeepers or newspaper editors with their own prejudices and agenda; no middleman with an ulterior motive.
Within two days, I had attracted 60,000 followers. Today I have more than 1.1 million. People have chosen to follow me on Twitter to find out for themselves who I am and to form their own opinions. This is true of anyone they choose to follow. I’ve been successful because I am honest and totally without spin. All you get is me. There is no agent, no publicist. And there should be no censorship of my opinions, whether from the FA or anyone else. Last week, for example, I innocently said that I fancied both Manchester sides to win, and the FA sent me a letter warning against inciting people to gamble and potentially using inside information. This is Orwellian. Freedom of speech is integral to social media. If people don’t want to follow, they simply click the unfollow. It’s that simple, some would say brutal.
Of course, a lot of abuse comes with the territory. At the outset I was ridiculed, but I kept at it because I was sure that as long as I kept my integrity, people would eventually see the real me. Twitter is not about having my ego stroked, but to connect in the most direct and honest way with followers.
This is the medium of Generation Y, the kids today that will become tomorrow’s leaders. These are my people, the kids with fire in their bellies to take a stand and make a difference. I want to be one of them. It’s amazing what a few months of tweeting have done in comparison with years of press, TV and radio interviews. Public perception is the total opposite of what it once was.
People are now beginning to see the man I am. It has reinvigorated my energy to stand for something in this world; something more than kicking a piece of leather around a field. Something bigger than myself. After all, it’s all about legacy – whether getting involved in the Hillsborough campaign or fighting for a new kind of social justice. History only remembers those that stood for something. Just look at Bell or Cromwell. They would have been avid tweeters.
Joey Barton captains Queens Park Rangers. He tweets @Joey7Barton. |  | | |
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| New columnist in The Times... on 14:19 - Jan 31 with 1232 views | DesertBoot |
He should spend his own time practicing corners and free kicks. |  |
| Wish I could be like David Watts |
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| New columnist in The Times... on 14:35 - Jan 31 with 1199 views | daveB |
at least he has a hobby, same as twitter for me he can do what he likes as long as he doesn't slag off former or current QPR players or managers. |  | | |
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