I have
just watched a woman stand in a supermarket, wearing nothing but her
underwear and a zany hat. No, I'm not watching every episode of
Miranda ever made, but in an effort to do a little research for what
I am about to write I decided to watch a few Neknominate videos. I've
avoided the chicken heads and raw rabbit liver in favour of more
reserved challenges; your raw eggs, your giggling timidly sipping a
can of Strongbow whilst modelling La Senza's finest next to the
discounted asparagus, etc.
I probably don't have to explain the concept of Neknominate, but just in case you've been hooked into a Netflix series for the last fortnight and have consequently sacrificed hygiene, personal relationships and current affairs, then Neknominate is essentially a drunk game of Chinese Whispers, with the whispers being those hot, wet, breathy whispers that only drunk people can produce. As is always the case with Chinese Whispers, the end result is very much far removed from the original message; what started as simply downing a pint of beer or seeing off a couple of shots has evolved into teenagers drinking tumblers of fluorescent car cleaner.
The reason that I don't need to properly explain Neknominate is because the media have already done it for me. A lot. I'm not saying that the press should have headed to The Winchester and waited for all of this to blow over, but why the mindless hysteria?
Tragically, five young British men have died since Neknominate hit our Newsfeeds and of course this should be reported on and offered as a sobering reminder of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, however I can't help but think that Neknominate has certain sections of the media rubbing its hands together with glee.
For a start, social media stories are cheap and easy. There's a reason that social media stories never really leave the pages of our paper, or are constantly wheeled out by topical 'magazine' shows whenever there's a slow news day; it's because they're quick to knock up. They very rarely require an expert's opinion, and even if they do they're denied one. No one has to be flown out to a strip of desert that was once a town, risking their life to produce a glitchy, out-of-sync news report . Journalists can sit quite comfortably, wedged onto their sofa whilst scrolling through months and months worth of tweets in order to find out everything that they need to know to write a sensationalist, misinformed social media piece.
A social media story is a quick tick on the whiteboard; “Right, that's some news done. Is it still raining? Great! More news!”
However, as much as a social media story is an easy lay for the media, there are other motivations behind the excessive, doppleganger-y reporting of Neknominate. You see, I think that the media kind of hate social networking sites. They're in constant competition for our attention, and more often than not it's social media that comes out on top. If a news story breaks, it'll often break on Twitter before newsrooms pick it up. During the 2011 London Riots it was Twitter that people turned to for information, with newspapers and news bulletins breathlessly playing catch up. Newspapers and broadcasters are aware of this; they're sitting in the corner, jealously eyeing their younger sibling as it performs for an engrossed audience.
So, naturally, the media will slag off social media at any chance it gets; it's kind of like the ex-girlfriend talking about the new girlfriend to her friends. Sometimes social media is a lawless state in which anyone can say anything to anyone, always with dire consequences, and at other times it's single-handedly turning Britain's teenagers into mute, illiterate, claw-handed “twits” (New Drinking Game: take a shot every time you read an article which smugly refers to people who tweet as twits). Social media is constantly portrayed as The Baddy, with the ever-noble, never knowingly underhand British press casting themselves as The Goodies.
I also feel like the media's decision to devote a, in my opinion, disproportionate amount of time to the reporting of Neknominate related stories is a preemptive reaction to the disapproving eyes of other European countries.
You know when you do something really embarrassing and for months afterwards, whenever The Incident comes up into conversation, you have to jump in and tell the story yourself so that it's told the way that you want it to be? I think that the press is doing exactly that; it's essentially standing up and shouting “Yes, Europe, we know that this is stupid. Look how stupid these young people are! And these! Of course, WE don't approve of this, look how much we don't approve of this!” whilst holding up pages and pages of articles.
The thing is, Neknomations have sort of stopped now, haven't they? I can't remember the last time that I ignored one on my Newsfeed. Yes, the original videos went viral, as did the more extreme challenges, but for the last week it's really been the media that has thrust a challenge into the faces, and glasses, of bored teenagers. Whether it's the tragic deaths that have been linked to the drinking game, the simple passage of time, or both, it seems that Neknominate is starting to burn itself out.
The media have already done the job that they've been lobbying social media big-wigs to do; once a 'youth craze' has featured as a discussion topic on the daily First Wives Club that is Loose Women, you know that it's dead in the murky drown, raw egg, Tabasco sauce infused water.
I probably don't have to explain the concept of Neknominate, but just in case you've been hooked into a Netflix series for the last fortnight and have consequently sacrificed hygiene, personal relationships and current affairs, then Neknominate is essentially a drunk game of Chinese Whispers, with the whispers being those hot, wet, breathy whispers that only drunk people can produce. As is always the case with Chinese Whispers, the end result is very much far removed from the original message; what started as simply downing a pint of beer or seeing off a couple of shots has evolved into teenagers drinking tumblers of fluorescent car cleaner.
The reason that I don't need to properly explain Neknominate is because the media have already done it for me. A lot. I'm not saying that the press should have headed to The Winchester and waited for all of this to blow over, but why the mindless hysteria?
Tragically, five young British men have died since Neknominate hit our Newsfeeds and of course this should be reported on and offered as a sobering reminder of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, however I can't help but think that Neknominate has certain sections of the media rubbing its hands together with glee.
For a start, social media stories are cheap and easy. There's a reason that social media stories never really leave the pages of our paper, or are constantly wheeled out by topical 'magazine' shows whenever there's a slow news day; it's because they're quick to knock up. They very rarely require an expert's opinion, and even if they do they're denied one. No one has to be flown out to a strip of desert that was once a town, risking their life to produce a glitchy, out-of-sync news report . Journalists can sit quite comfortably, wedged onto their sofa whilst scrolling through months and months worth of tweets in order to find out everything that they need to know to write a sensationalist, misinformed social media piece.
A social media story is a quick tick on the whiteboard; “Right, that's some news done. Is it still raining? Great! More news!”
However, as much as a social media story is an easy lay for the media, there are other motivations behind the excessive, doppleganger-y reporting of Neknominate. You see, I think that the media kind of hate social networking sites. They're in constant competition for our attention, and more often than not it's social media that comes out on top. If a news story breaks, it'll often break on Twitter before newsrooms pick it up. During the 2011 London Riots it was Twitter that people turned to for information, with newspapers and news bulletins breathlessly playing catch up. Newspapers and broadcasters are aware of this; they're sitting in the corner, jealously eyeing their younger sibling as it performs for an engrossed audience.
So, naturally, the media will slag off social media at any chance it gets; it's kind of like the ex-girlfriend talking about the new girlfriend to her friends. Sometimes social media is a lawless state in which anyone can say anything to anyone, always with dire consequences, and at other times it's single-handedly turning Britain's teenagers into mute, illiterate, claw-handed “twits” (New Drinking Game: take a shot every time you read an article which smugly refers to people who tweet as twits). Social media is constantly portrayed as The Baddy, with the ever-noble, never knowingly underhand British press casting themselves as The Goodies.
I also feel like the media's decision to devote a, in my opinion, disproportionate amount of time to the reporting of Neknominate related stories is a preemptive reaction to the disapproving eyes of other European countries.
You know when you do something really embarrassing and for months afterwards, whenever The Incident comes up into conversation, you have to jump in and tell the story yourself so that it's told the way that you want it to be? I think that the press is doing exactly that; it's essentially standing up and shouting “Yes, Europe, we know that this is stupid. Look how stupid these young people are! And these! Of course, WE don't approve of this, look how much we don't approve of this!” whilst holding up pages and pages of articles.
The thing is, Neknomations have sort of stopped now, haven't they? I can't remember the last time that I ignored one on my Newsfeed. Yes, the original videos went viral, as did the more extreme challenges, but for the last week it's really been the media that has thrust a challenge into the faces, and glasses, of bored teenagers. Whether it's the tragic deaths that have been linked to the drinking game, the simple passage of time, or both, it seems that Neknominate is starting to burn itself out.
The media have already done the job that they've been lobbying social media big-wigs to do; once a 'youth craze' has featured as a discussion topic on the daily First Wives Club that is Loose Women, you know that it's dead in the murky drown, raw egg, Tabasco sauce infused water.
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