On Friday I saw a great example of social media in action. I’m not embarrassed to admit it gave me a little shiver of joy. Mainly because lots (and lots and lots) of peeps ganged up on the Daily Mail (nope they’re not getting a link).
The Daily Mail run an awful lot of ridiculous polls.
The wording of these polls often leave a lot to be desired.
Friday’s little gem was “Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue?”
It’s head-smackingly awful.
Ideally, if you’re running a poll, you shouldn’t be trying to lead your voters into a particular outcome. Basically the Daily Mail has provided an excellent example of how NOT to run a poll.
But, the Daily Mail didn’t count on the likes of the good folk on twitter getting wind of the poll, and subverting it.
Here’s how the poll looked on Friday afternoon:
Yep, 92% of those polled think that the NHS *should* allow gipsies (or should that be gypsies?) to jump the queue.
In your face Daily Mail.
on Jun 24th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Oh Daily Mail, how you make me laugh/want to hit you..
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/13/article-1192473-055359C6000005DC-561_233×954.jpg
^ They had this story alongside the story of Cher’s son who has recently announced he’s transitioning, but the entire thing is riddled with the most ridiculous, unsupported crap, saying that the NHS are “advising children how to have a sex change”. The actual story they’re talking about is here: http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/transhealth/pages/transrealstorymother.aspx and they seemed to have missed the whole point that people are campaigning for blockers and hormones to become legal for under 16s and 18s (because what’s the point in giving a seventeen year old drugs to stop puberty from beginning..a bit late!)
It also claims there are 5,000 transsexuals in the UK (bollocks!) and so therefore information isn’t needed on the website. The entire article blasts the NHS for making this story available, when all it is is giving an account of a mother of a transwoman’s experiences and giving links to external organizations where families of trans people can go for help.
Showing kids how to undergo a sex change? (because “sex change” is all it takes, obviously) I can so see where you’re coming from, Daily Mail..
on Jun 25th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Wow - another fabulous example - just a load of sensationalist rubbish. They continually feed off of their readers’ fears and breed further intolerance.