Are City fans being used against the club?

[bernabias home shirt]

If your reading this duncan
Thanks for getting absolutley nothing right regarding our transfers in the summer
Keep up the good work :)

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

This really is taking paranoia to a whole new level.
What next?
'Sheikh Mansour is monitoring our brain patterns on computers at the turnstiles for any signs of thought crime'?

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

If your reading this duncan
Thanks for getting absolutley nothing right regarding our transfers in the summer
Keep up the good work :)

No problem son.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

Im sorry to everyone but the OP deserves this

Fucking bat shit crazy

I will file this under people who should have 24hr care

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I talk to castles occasionally and he knows full well I want mourinho at city. He's never ever mooted it as a possibility/probability.

I'm really not sure what you are getting at here.

Its not specific to anyone DD.

Just floating the idea that fans could be roused into doing the groundwork on a story for someone.

Perhaps it has already happened and we simply dont know it?

Well if a journo has a story they want it under wraps until they go to print with it, so I'd say the last thing they'll do is go to social media with it. Twitter is small beer compared to, say The Times.

'Some City fans want mourinho' is not a story.

'Mourinho wants city' is a massive story.

Unless you are talking about a journalist doing the dirty work of a certain manager or player, which of course happens all the time. But in general, getting a couple of people talking on the Internet is nothing. If someone in the game wants a story out they just leak it to a journalist who runs it in the press.

Interesting topic, mate, but lets not overstate the influence the Internet has.

 

[blueyorkie]

I wonder if anyone else would admit to being in private conversations with journalists at any time?

It can't just be me that has, can it?

I've interacted with Duncan Castles on several occasions on twitter but of late I have resorted to telling him that he has done nothing but tell lies and half truths about City, he gets very twitchy about it. He asked me for one instance of him talking trash and I cited his Aguero to Real Madrid story last summer, needless to say he hasn't replied. Watch him he's poisonous.

 

[bugsyblue]

I talk to castles occasionally and he knows full well I want mourinho at city. He's never ever mooted it as a possibility/probability.

I'm really not sure what you are getting at here.

Its not specific to anyone DD.

Just floating the idea that fans could be roused into doing the groundwork on a story for someone.

Perhaps it has already happened and we simply dont know it?

Well if a journo has a story they want it under wraps until they go to print with it, so I'd say the last thing they'll do is go to social media with it. Twitter is small beer compared to, say The Times.

'Some City fans want mourinho' is not a story.

'Mourinho wants city' is a massive story.

Unless you are talking about a journalist doing the dirty work of a certain manager or player, which of course happens all the time. But in general, getting a couple of people talking on the Internet is nothing. If someone in the game wants a story out they just leak it to a journalist who runs it in the press.

Interesting topic, mate, but lets not overstate the influence the Internet has.

Or that fans have.

 

[Balti]

they seem especially active after we lose lol

 

[Why Always Ste]

To answer the topic title.... Yes. We are being used against the club.

How hard is it really to create a topic right now with the opinion of: we don't want Platt at City.

With a properly constructed argument as to why Platt should go, you'll get shitloads of replies convincing many blues that Platt should go.

As the days go by, many posters have this idea that its all Platts fault and this opinion is widespread amongst this community, with new topics created by genuine fans on why David Platt should go....all started by a Journo.

One week later and its back page headline: Platt to go in Summer.

Countless posts on here on why mancini is now the devil, yet inside the stadium we're still singing his name.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Do you not think the club also use journalists to influence the fans? I could tell some stories about that.

There's relatively little original writing in the media; it's all come from somewhere for some reason. My latest KOTK article in the forthcoming issue deals with some (to me) blatant agendas in recent newspaper stories and not just those about us.

That's why people like David Conn are so valuable. You may not always agree with him but his stuff is original and he's not afraid to lift stones to see what crawls out.

 

[mayo31]

We are being hacked

Will this new press regulation save us?

 

[njmcfc1894]

neil custis is pretty good and doesnt hide if questioned, as long as you dont abuse him he's fine, he falls out with more rags than city fans.

 

[Dextersmate]

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.

Spot on for me bud,a few on here definately have an agenda.These people don,t just think that Bob and the coaches get things wrong,they know.

 

[fbloke]

I talk to castles occasionally and he knows full well I want mourinho at city. He's never ever mooted it as a possibility/probability.

I'm really not sure what you are getting at here.

Its not specific to anyone DD.

Just floating the idea that fans could be roused into doing the groundwork on a story for someone.

Perhaps it has already happened and we simply dont know it?

Well if a journo has a story they want it under wraps until they go to print with it, so I'd say the last thing they'll do is go to social media with it. Twitter is small beer compared to, say The Times.

'Some City fans want mourinho' is not a story.

'Mourinho wants city' is a massive story.

Unless you are talking about a journalist doing the dirty work of a certain manager or player, which of course happens all the time. But in general, getting a couple of people talking on the Internet is nothing. If someone in the game wants a story out they just leak it to a journalist who runs it in the press.

Interesting topic, mate, but lets not overstate the influence the Internet has.

I had an interesting Twitter convo with a few blues and Neil Custis of the Sun.

Many on here will immediately attack Neil for being anti-City and for working for the Sun but he genuinely thinks City should stick by Mancini and believes that most City fans do too.

Thats fine by me as the conversation is out in the public domain and everyone knows his thoughts and the debate can be had.

However, if a particular opinion is being pushed as fact in private and fans are being geed up to believe something to be true and go forth and tell the world then thats a whole different ball game.

I'm not saying that anyone has definitely done anything but I do wonder if such things have happened and why.

Planting a story or an idea in the minds of 30,000 fans via social media is a new problem that clubs are having to deal with.

If I and you for example were to be tapped up privately and tweeted something it would hit 7,681 people's twitter accounts instantly. Add in four or five more people, RT's etc and an agenda can be set and an idea gains some credence by its popularity.

All I'm saying is have we considered this fully?

 

[trevorriley]

So reporters from papers or media may be reading this thread.....

Oh great stuff, just like to say if you are from "the sun" or "sky" you all talk absolute bollocks..............

ctid

 

[oakiecokie]

I talk to the trees but they don't listen to me.

And heres me thinking you were a relation of Prince Charles with a name like yours. ;)

 

[fbloke]

Thanks for the PM's guys they were most illuminating.

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

All journalists have an agenda and maybe you can't blame them for it,after all it's their job to find stories/headlines and they wouldn't give a toss where it came from. It's a bit sad that the vast majority will be negative stories aimed at running down a player or a club but it seems that's the world we live in nowadays.

I have no doubt a reporter would be able to point at some positive article they have written but on the whole it's the negative ones they look for.Things like the Ferdinand situation is just a gift for them to go at the player,the FA the manager ( although they will of course steer clear of SAF even though his hand is clearly in this).

Hell we know how much they pursued Mario just to get a headline to have a go.Photographers plague City at Carrington in the hope of getting a picture they can spin as negative.Have you ever seen a story from there that didn't have a negative spin on it?

 

[cheddar404]

Our owners are pulling out

Not 100% effective. Can still get pregnant.

 

[billfromthehill]

It's probably you and your altered ego (billy shears)
That he's talking about diddly Dave
Pure trouble for bobby manc
CAN'T YOU SEE HE WANTS THE JOB AT THE SWAMP (mourino)?
GET A LIFE MAN.