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How different would #ArcherOut have been if social media had been more advanced back then?



edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
47,228
All this Blackpool stuff had me wondering. Most of the Archer Out campaigning & communication was conducted via traditional media (principally the Argus, with the odd limp input from Meridian TV & BBC South), and word of mouth.

How differently would things have played out if we'd been able to utilise the likes of Twitter & Facebook, do you reckon?

At a guess, I'd imagine a few more people would have ended up being arrested or sued by either Archer or Bellotti, at the very least, for late night drunken abuse/rants online. I wonder if we'd have got rid of them quicker if we'd been able to spread the message faster and more widely, as campaigns of all sorts are capable of doing these days?
 


KZNSeagull

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
19,693
Wolsingham, County Durham
All this Blackpool stuff had me wondering. Most of the Archer Out campaigning & communication was conducted via traditional media (principally the Argus, with the odd limp input from Meridian TV & BBC South), and word of mouth.

How differently would things have played out if we'd been able to utilise the likes of Twitter & Facebook, do you reckon?

At a guess, I'd imagine a few more people would have ended up being arrested or sued by either Archer or Bellotti, at the very least, for late night drunken abuse/rants online. I wonder if we'd have got rid of them quicker if we'd been able to spread the message faster and more widely, as campaigns of all sorts are capable of doing these days?

I think it would have happened much quicker and with less effort. It would have taken months if not years to get as much publicity as the Blackpool campaign has got in such a short space of time. But that is the nature of things nowadays - hit a nerve and people will rally to your cause at the touch of a button.
 


edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
47,228
Bellotti doesn't have a Twitter account- he must be one of the few local politicians not to do so, but it's obvious why, even now.

Had it been invented when he was in power down here, he'd have been all over it, I feel sure of that, as he was always a man who enjoyed being in the limelight.

Therefore, inevitably, he'd have found himself on the receiving end of enormous abuse via the same medium. And would have prosecuted/sued, of course.
 


Jam The Man

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
8,110
South East North Lancing
Funnily enough I was thinking that the other day. I was re-reading Build a Bonfire and considered that a 'hashtag' impact upon Archer and Bellotti would have been immense.
 


Man of Harveys

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
18,731
Brighton, UK
Wasn't a lot of the campaigning done right here on NSC? It was certainly a very early use of the internet for such stuff and certainly pre-FB and Twitter. But it wasn't that old skool: Fans United obviously wouldn't have happened without NSC, for example. We were early adopters!
 




Lincoln Imp

Well-known member
Feb 2, 2009
5,964
The existence of social media would have made the campaign vastly simpler to run and organise - writing and printing flyers on a Saturday morning and distributing them in the tipping rain in the Old Shoreham Road wouldn't have been the only way protesters would have got their messages across. People wouldn't have had to flit around the A23 in the dark sticking little notices on lamp posts to promote Fans United. Sarah Watts might not have had to organise the sending of thousands of Christmas cards to Bill Archer from a little trestle table in Hove Park. And there would be dozens of better examples than these.

It makes you realise what an amazing job the Archer Out campaigners did. And most of those early campaigners went on to fight the stadium campaign. No wonder they were delighted to become ordinary fans again when it was all over.
 


Shatner's Bassoon

The Puff Pastry Hangman
Feb 12, 2012
860
It depends. Do you mean that social media were available in the conditions pertaining at the time? Or do you mean if the campaign had to be run in 2015?

I would say that a lot of the effectiveness of the campaign had to do with physical presence and, frankly, an underlying threat. Chasing Bellotti out of the directors' box, for example, would be completely impossible in today's conditions. Invading the pitch with the same frequency would likewise be impossible. Like it or not, these things got us noticed.

Don't forget as well that with the proliferation of media, modern campaigns tend to be more niche. Is twitter more than an echo chamber, really? How many people who aren't already interested will come across a hashtag campaign?

I would guess that the Oystons, Mike Ashley etc will be more than happy to deal with a social media campaign. That's why I hope that initiatives such as boycotts, and next Saturday at Blackpool, are well supported.
 






ROSM

Well-known member
Dec 26, 2005
6,180
Just far enough away from LDC
I don't see it doing any of the clubs any good so far, nothing beats feet on the ground banging on his front door or disrupting his businesses.

Social media is too comfortable and too easy to ignore, answer your front door to 50+ supporters wanting a debate is a whole different thing

Our campaign against focus diy would have counted for nothing if it were twitter focussed.

I far preferred rocking up to a diy store on a Sunday and getting them to mix 10 litres of paint in various putrid shades, cutting chain link into dozens of strange lengths and weighing out hundreds of screws and nails, only to have forgotten my walletbsnf leaving them at the till having been rung through
 


Black Rod

Well-known member
Jan 19, 2013
944
I don't see it doing any of the clubs any good so far, nothing beats feet on the ground banging on his front door or disrupting his businesses.

Social media is too comfortable and too easy to ignore, answer your front door to 50+ supporters wanting a debate is a whole different thing

This

People are showing support to Blackpool by posting on line from the comfort of a computer or mobile. You can stand with them without having to leave the house, as opposed to in our day when you physically had to be at The Goldstone/marching to Archers after Wigan/standing outside Focus DIY on the way to Rochdale to make your voice heard

I'd be very surprised if there Fans United day is anything like the success we had and a lot of it will be down to the advances in technology
 


edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
47,228
It depends. Do you mean that social media were available in the conditions pertaining at the time? Or do you mean if the campaign had to be run in 2015?

Yeah, I meant if the same campaign were run now. I know there was (much more limited) access to NSC and so on, but Twitter, Facebook & so on weren't on the radar.

I just imagine it would have been easier to spread the message nationwide with such tools available. It doesn't mean that the activity that went on- the boycotts, pitch invasions, letter writing, flower-sending, staking out of Archer's house and so on, wouldn't have been necessary, in fact I think those things would be every bit as relevant now.

I think where I'm going with it is what impact social media would have had on Archer's business & Bellotti's political career, if it had been around in its modern format to enhance wider awareness of the situation.
 




GreersElbow

New member
Jan 5, 2012
4,870
A Northern Outpost
One only has to look at social and political activism and social media. Its been dubbed "slacktivism" Because an online presence and 'protest' is much easier than being on the ground with people. Social media has been a pain for activists, because people prefer to express online solidarity more for a pat on the back and the feel good factor than grafting for real change.

I've often wondered whether that's why recent protest movements (in the West, social media did wonders in the Arab Spring) have been largely failures, 'occupy' ended up having very few boots on the ground, most of their support was online. Quantity often saturates quality.

So, I'd imagine things would be a lot worse. If people were asked what were they doing to save their club today, it'd be "signed an e-petition and shared it on facebook". Real effective change happens through direct action.
 


Shatner's Bassoon

The Puff Pastry Hangman
Feb 12, 2012
860
Yeah, I meant if the same campaign were run now. I know there was (much more limited) access to NSC and so on, but Twitter, Facebook & so on weren't on the radar.

I just imagine it would have been easier to spread the message nationwide with such tools available. It doesn't mean that the activity that went on- the boycotts, pitch invasions, letter writing, flower-sending, staking out of Archer's house and so on, wouldn't have been necessary, in fact I think those things would be every bit as relevant now.

I think where I'm going with it is what impact social media would have had on Archer's business & Bellotti's political career, if it had been around in its modern format to enhance wider awareness of the situation.

I pretty much agree with @Greer'sElbow on this. Regarding the effect on political careers, I would use the example of Grant Shapps/Michael Green to suggest that a lot of politicians simply couldn't give a toss how much contempt they soak up on social media. A lot of them seem to think - with some justification, it seems to me - that if they brazen it out for long enough eventually people will move on to the next thing.

Hopefully I'm being unduly pessimistic.
 


Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
12,393
Brighton
All this Blackpool stuff had me wondering. Most of the Archer Out campaigning & communication was conducted via traditional media (principally the Argus, with the odd limp input from Meridian TV & BBC South), and word of mouth.

How differently would things have played out if we'd been able to utilise the likes of Twitter & Facebook, do you reckon?

At a guess, I'd imagine a few more people would have ended up being arrested or sued by either Archer or Bellotti, at the very least, for late night drunken abuse/rants online. I wonder if we'd have got rid of them quicker if we'd been able to spread the message faster and more widely, as campaigns of all sorts are capable of doing these days?

#OystonOut would suggest that it wouldn't have been any different I'm sad to say.

The football authorities still appear to be as toothless as ever in protecting clubs from greedy self serving owners.
 




edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
47,228
#OystonOut would suggest that it wouldn't have been any different I'm sad to say.

The football authorities still appear to be as toothless as ever in protecting clubs from greedy self serving owners.

That much is true. The Oysters won't be the last of their breed. It'll be interesting to see how some of the more recent investors in English/Welsh sides shape up. Tan, Demin, Venky's, the guys who've just bought Sheffield Wednesday, etc
 





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