Like most members of generation Y, I find myself spending most of my leisure time on the web rather than in front of the television. On some occasions (and sometimes quite worryingly), I find myself doing both simultaneously.
Thursday nights is a stay-in-TV-night for me, where (after first watching a cheesy soap drama) I watch Q&A on ABC1. It has become by far one of the best shows I’ve seen on the ABC. Its inquisitive and challenging nature, with constant fresh faces and content makes it very appealing – for those who enjoy ‘nerdy’ activities.
Recently, I’ve found myself enjoying the show even more, particularly as I am also following the conversation on the program’s Twitter page . The comments, observations and questions raised there are fascinating.
This week, Q&A was interesting on many levels. It was the special ‘youth’ version of the show, where the audience was all under 25 years and the panel consisted of young leaders – except for the Deputy Prime Minister, the show’s host, and upstart‘s latest Twitter-follower.
That’s right folks, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is this magazine’s latest fan. I now call on Kevin Rudd to jump on the upstart bandwagon.
Whether he does or doesn’t it has been a great week here at upstart. We’ve had some very positive responses to the site from journalism schools across the country, set up our Facebook fan page and also established an events calendar.
I’ve also been receiving dozens of e-mails from students who are keen to continue to write pieces for upstart.
And just as upstart‘s latest Twitter-fan has admitted this week, I too must say that I erred in judgment in last week’s column, where I was mesmerised by Twitter’s apparent power to deliver a mass audience to our fledgling publishing endeavour.
While a lot of people are still clicking through to the site through Twitter, our trusty blogstats have shown that setting up our Facebook fan page has brought a whole new audience to the site.
Next time, I’ll be sure to do more research before throwing theories out there which can so easily be shot down in flames. Or should that be tweets?
Erdem Koc
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Contact upstart editor Erdem Koc on contact@upstart.net.au
