Henry's hand gets Twitterers texting

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 19, 2009 at 2:52 PM

Last night's tension filled 2010 World Cup Qualifier between France and Ireland exploded in extra time when French captain Thierry Henry set up what would be the decisive goal after keeping the ball in play with his hand from an offside position.

The controversial result, which sees France heading to South Africa and Ireland heading home, has sparked outrage over the internet with many fans tweeting about the event and a 'Wiki war' breaking out over Henry's Wikipedia page.

The Guardian reports : "In fact, several pages at Wikipedia have been feeling the 'Henry effect' - with a battle raging over the definition of cheating in sport. One paragraph began: 'The single biggest most obvious example of cheating in the history of soccer took place in Stade De France on November 18th 2009 during the Ireland versus France playoff for qualification to the 2010 World Cup...'"

Several videos of the discretion have already been uploaded to YouTube with some 84 results for to the seach «Henry/handball/Ireland»- the number one video scoring 19, 878 hits and counting. All in the space of 15 hours.

The intensity of the online reaction brings home just how much the culture of news consumption has changed with the introduction of social media and collaborative information websites such as Wikipedia.

Instead of flipping to the sports section in the paper the day after a match on the way to work and having a word with whoever is next to you on the train, people can pull out their phones and instantly tweet their outrage or log onto a website to comment and connect with others in the heat of the moment.

The digital age offers a mouthpiece to anyone and everyone and the result has drastically changed the nature of journalism. People 'tweeted' on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, they 'tweeted' to break the story of US Airways Flight 1549's dramatic crash into the Hudson River earlier this year, and last night they 'tweeted' their outrage over a bad call in a football match.

Whilst debates continue to rage over whether such a thing diminishes or improves the quality of news, it is most definite that it has changed its very nature. More and more publications are becoming aware of this, appointing social media editors, opening up comments to online news articles, and more seriously considering the feedback of the general public from these forums in the construction of their journalism.

Source : Guardian