There are quite a few journalists on this forum and on Twitter who interact with City fans.
I have had chats with a few myself and I know that others have had too.
Most of the time it is general chit chat and 'banter' and it all seems harmless enough.
One example is Duncan Castles who I have had private conversations with and who is a poster on this very forum. He seems to me to be a very nice, genuine chap who simply likes talking about footy and footy finances.
But we also know that some of what we have discussed and posted on here and on twitter has ended up in print so I was wondering how deliberate are these journalist fan interactions?
Going back to Duncan, simply because he is prolific in talking to fans, he could quite easily use us fans to create a story for him by having off the record, private chats and stoking the fires of a certain subject within the City faithful.
If a journalist wanted, for example, to promote the idea of Jose Mourinho coming to City then a real groundswell of support for that idea could be generated by using social media.
Now I suppose we could trust in two things, the professionalism of the journalists who cover City and the common sense of fans to see through such a ploy and not help propagate a story.
But there seems a very real possibility that we City fans are being used as pawns in the development of some stories.
If Duncan Castles is indeed innocently interacting with fans, including myself, which is what I believe to be the case then good on him. However if he wanted to he could quite easily get ten or fifteen vocal blues to do his dirty work for him by spreading a rumour all across the internet.
So I do wonder if we are helping to destabilise the club without even realising it.
I am aware that some journalists wonder where certain stories come from and how they gain so much commentary online so quickly.
We only need to look at the Times' DFL story to realise that even the most professional journalists and editors can get a non-story out there so imagine what passionate and easily led fans could do with some gentle encouragement aided by social media.
It makes me wonder what damage we could be doing without realising it.
I have had chats with a few myself and I know that others have had too.
Most of the time it is general chit chat and 'banter' and it all seems harmless enough.
One example is Duncan Castles who I have had private conversations with and who is a poster on this very forum. He seems to me to be a very nice, genuine chap who simply likes talking about footy and footy finances.
But we also know that some of what we have discussed and posted on here and on twitter has ended up in print so I was wondering how deliberate are these journalist fan interactions?
Going back to Duncan, simply because he is prolific in talking to fans, he could quite easily use us fans to create a story for him by having off the record, private chats and stoking the fires of a certain subject within the City faithful.
If a journalist wanted, for example, to promote the idea of Jose Mourinho coming to City then a real groundswell of support for that idea could be generated by using social media.
Now I suppose we could trust in two things, the professionalism of the journalists who cover City and the common sense of fans to see through such a ploy and not help propagate a story.
But there seems a very real possibility that we City fans are being used as pawns in the development of some stories.
If Duncan Castles is indeed innocently interacting with fans, including myself, which is what I believe to be the case then good on him. However if he wanted to he could quite easily get ten or fifteen vocal blues to do his dirty work for him by spreading a rumour all across the internet.
So I do wonder if we are helping to destabilise the club without even realising it.
I am aware that some journalists wonder where certain stories come from and how they gain so much commentary online so quickly.
We only need to look at the Times' DFL story to realise that even the most professional journalists and editors can get a non-story out there so imagine what passionate and easily led fans could do with some gentle encouragement aided by social media.
It makes me wonder what damage we could be doing without realising it.