Ashton Kutcher - the 1,000,000 follower Man!
Posted on 17. Apr, 2009 by admin in Celebrities, TwitterNews
Well, based on how fast news spreads around the internet, our posting on this Ashton/Twitter news may already be “old news”. But for those that don’t already know, Ashton Kutcher has been crowned the first person to hit 1,000,000 followers on Twitter! That’s a lot of freakin followers. How did he do it? Duh, he’s Ashton Kutcher, com’on. What kind of question is that?
THE REASON
Ashton used his star power and a challenge with CNN to see who could reach 1,000,000 followers first. They put a cause behind this, and the challenge involved giving aide to the cause of Malaria. Ashton’s challenge was that if he reached 1,000,000 followers before CNN, he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to the cause. If he lost, he would give 1,000 nets. Win win either way, but definitely a good challenge and all in honor of World Malaria Day.
“So I just thought that was just kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media, and I said that, if I beat CNN to 1 million viewers, then I would ding-dong ditch Ted Turner — because I don’t think it’s gonna happen.” - Ashton Kutcher (taken from CNN.com)
Well, it happened and it all culminated through a Live Ustream from Ashton and Demi Moore’s home. Ashton sat there in front of his laptop, talking to his audience, chatting with Demi as she came in and out of the frame, and repsonded to tweets. At one point Ashton had over 11,000 viewers watching his live stream.
WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT OLD AND NEW SCHOOL MEDIA?
This battle could almost be compared to a David & Goliath type of battle. Here we have a large news organization, that broadcasts 24 hours a day, challenging one person, a celebrity we have to add, who is simply using his Twitter account and Ustream to get his word out. This shows the power behind “new media” and social networking that has got to be making these larger organizations nervous.
Ashton himself doubted that he could win, so I’m sure he was just as surprised as the rest of the world. But this does say a lot and I believe we’re beginning to see a shift in media, how we get our news, and how we disseminate information. We’re constantly seeing newspapers shut down and attempt to go to an online form, cable and news stations are struggling to keep their viewership up (outside of Fox News who claims to be staying way above other media heads such as CNN, MSNBC, and HeadlineNews), and more and more people are simply looking to the internet as their source for news and communication.
THE FUTURE
I can see a future coming where televisions are a thing of the past and online and mobile sources become the standard. I can see myselft flying around town with my jetpack, tweeting with my thoughts and getting my news and info wirelessly through the screen embedded in my glasses. Ha, well, maybe this is a little too far fetched, but you never know.
One future event you can look forward to is watching Ashton tonight on Larry King Live. He’ll be talking about his Twitter experience and lots of other stuff going on in his life. That starts at 9pm E.T. on CNN.
Article written by Hector Garcia: @hectorgarcia
