Chat's Life - inspiring conversation with graphics on social

CONVERSATION is the spice of online life, and we social media managers are always looking for ways to get people talking.

I'm luckier than most - because I work at a national newspaper. That means there is usually plenty of interesting, provocative content to get our followers going. 

Original graphic: Simple, but effective

But a simple question written into a tweet with no image and no context is likely to get ignored by most people, regardless of how great the story is. 

On our team, we decided that wouldn't do - we needed to make the question itself more engaging.

So here's what we did.

The Sun's website had been running "Have Your Say" articles for some time, and we thought it would be a good idea to try to translate this concept onto social media. 

Roxanne: This was my first go at making a graphic. Unfortunately, I saved it as a jpeg (rather than png)
file so the text looks a bit wobbly. But it still had a great response from followers

The first - and most obvious - thing to do was create a hashtag from the title. This would give continuity to our feed and mean regular readers would come to expect the #HaveYourSay tweets.

Baby steps: The drop shadow is improved on this one and the hashtag reads better

We then started to work on some ideas for graphics. The hashtag itself on a Sun red background in a Sun font was the first idea, which worked OK - but I thought we could have a bit more fun with it. 

Big head Barlow: If you've read my previous blogs, you'll know I find over-sized heads hilarious.
This is no exception.

So the next idea I had was to use a graphic (600x300 pix) which had the hashtag, a question and an picture from the story we were referring to. This would show the question and the context in one concise, eye-catching, shareable image.

Translucent juice: I had to cut out the beer from the middle of the glass on this one, then increase
the transparency so you can read the words through it. I think it works well.

We now try to do these as often as possible, and move the words and pictures around to keep it interesting. But, of course, the style (ie. colour and font) remain the same to give consistency to the concept, and to make it more recognisable.

Food for thought: I experimented with a larger picture on this with an added outer glow. The words
also have a black stroke, which I hadn't done on any of the others. I'm still undecided on whether
I like it or not. But it is certainly striking. 

What do you think? #HaveYourSay!

Elliot Rodger wasn't alone: The sexists, racists and homophobes going public on Twitter

CRAZED California murderer Elliot Rodger used various online forums to rant about his extreme hatred of women in the months leading up to his infamous killing spree. 

This so-called 'manosphere' of 'incel' - or involuntary celibate - sites and blogs exist for angry men to paint themselves as victims of a heartless, ruthless sex culture that's ignored them. They take out their loneliness on members of the opposite sex. 

Elliot Rodger

But sexism isn't the only type of hatred shouting loudly on the internet. And the little-known incel forums aren't the only places these views can be found. Increasingly, people with an axe to grind are taking to much more public social networks to preach their hatred. 

I went onto Twitter to search out this sexism, racism and homophobia. I wanted to know how much of it there is, and just how public these people are prepared to be. 

Much of what I found is not nice, to say the least. But ignoring them won't just make it go away, and I think it's important to look objectively at these extreme, troubled opinions with a clear head. 

I've listed some below so that you won't have to worry about YOUR search history being as questionable as mine now is.

WARNING: The rest of this blog contains extremely offensive language. In case it isn't already clear, I'm using these tweets only as examples of views which I personally find absolutely abhorrent.

Sexism

Misogyny and hatred towards women is often dressed up as 'Men's Rights'. This is misleading though. It gives the impression that the activists are campaigning about a genuine cause, when it is often just an excuse for thoughtless, unadulterated hatred. 

"The Girl Who Cried Rape. It really has got to the point (with me) that when someone claims they were raped, I just don’t give a fuck."
— Mister Dude (@MensRightsDude) January 12, 2013

I am not rude to women. And i dont hate them. I am rude to bitches, sluts, hoes, non loyal women. I hate them I also hate if they talk shit
— ⓙⓐⓒⓞⓑ ✞ (@Jacobsaenz2) June 2, 2014

Telling modern women to "go back to the kitchen" is pointless. Most wouldn't have a clue what to do. Feminism has turned them into 3 holes..
— Esoteric Traditional (@EsotericTrad) April 18, 2014

WOMEN SHOULDN'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUBLIC EDUCATION #NoAllWomen
— MP Weezy (@blackjesus_203) May 26, 2014

Homophobia

A great deal of homophobic ranting on Twitter is dressed up as banter - the sort of stuff they still struggle to stamp out in schools (ie. 'That is so gay' or 'Why are you being such a queer?'). But not all of it follows this pattern. Some people are just spontaneously nasty.

I hate queers. Don't come near me with you fagget voice and girls jeans you fucker. ITS WRONG. GOD IS RIGHT
— Domenic (@domridesbikes4) May 30, 2014

Fuckin hate queers,someone should gas them all
— JAMES K (@CleverleyDone23) May 28, 2014

I use to not give a shit or have anything against gays but ever sense media and everyone's been making big deal about them... I hate queers.
— Conor Longmire (@C3Longmire11) May 25, 2014

Racism

Just like in the real world, racism takes many forms on Twitter. Some people regard their views as patriotism and often aim jibes specifically at immigrants. You also find, as in the real world, that some have hatred only for a specific race. Others are indiscriminate in their discrimination.

YOU PEOPLE THINK I FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOUR OPINIONS. FUCK NIGGERS, WETBACKS, JEWS FUCK EM ALL UNFOLLOW ME YOU FUCKING QUEERS.
— Jordan. (@MutePackJordy) May 28, 2014

Good fucking morning all my white brothers and sisters and fuck all u niggers Jews Muslims and spicks do us a favor kill each other faster
— mike tator (@tator_mike) May 27, 2014

Hang all niggers
— Jethro Shebo (@AngryKKKJethro) May 26, 2014

So why am I showing you all this? 

The sheer volume of hatred of all kinds on Twitter - and there is a lot -  means there are clearly issues that need to be subject to public debate. Some would argue that Twitter itself should be more strict in censoring these views. I would absolutely disagree.

Facebook has far stricter rules on censorship, which is one of the many reasons I think it's an inferior social network. Censorship essentially patronises users, telling them they are too stupid or irresponsible to make up their own minds about the offensive views of others. 

I have included the above tweets in this blog precisely because I want you, the reader, to make up your own mind about them and think about the reasons they exist in the first place. 

When you publish to Twitter, you publish to the world. Users know this, so the people writing these comments must believe their views to be valid on on some level. The way to combat this is not by censoring them - that would just send them underground or onto the more private forums like the ones Elliot Rodger used. 

Instead, we should challenge them, write about them, and articulate clearly why these type of views don't hold any water. Everyone has the right to an opinion, after all. But we are all entitled to confront those we don't agree with.

Extreme views are nothing new. But social media has now given us all a great means of exposing and questioning them. Let's use it.