#guardiantalk #gut #gutalk this is still a story
Apparently in Twitter terms this has been closed down. Official tweets have stopped.
But it is still a mystery. The Guardian has some awareness of social media. For ten years or so there has been a talkboard and some people find out about it. Never promoted in print, unlike Comment is Free where punters are allowed to add little bits on the end of the column.
Theory a, pro journalists just don't like it. There may be a valid reason why it was shut down without any warning on a Friday. It was then decided not to explain or respond to enquiries till the Monday when more people would be available. Today I discover through tracing back a tweet from Spank the Monkey that there has been an update on the blog
not easy to find otherwise. The Guardian belief seems to be that if they keep it as quiet as possible readers will just forget about it.
Jeff Jarvis recently commented on Jonathan Freedland as a recycle curmudgeon.
He has got a point. Thing is, things are moving back in time. The print journalists are less polite about social media than ever. Peter Preston seems to think that reporting from Libya is only reliable when the war correspondents jet in from London.
The closure of Guardian Talk is a disaster. For a news organisation to tell the public please go away we cannot cope, try Facebook is not a good omen.
Catastrophic failure usually has a background of sustained management neglect. There has never been a response from Guardian staff to the issues raised. Perhaps indirectly but the communication was very remote.
Coming soon another conference talk
this will look at bloggers and journalists in general terms. I don't see the point of the Guardian getting all techy. There is something about policy that needs to be cleared up first. The lack of explanation around the closure of Guardian Talk will be a case study for many years to come. Investigation continues.