We need a word

May 22, 2017 • 10:30 am

The contest is in the last paragraph.

An increasing number of articles on websites, even respectable ones, seem to consist largely of a collection of people’s tweets. Here’s an example from a non-respectable site. (Click on screenshot to go to articles. The tweets given in the piece go on beyond the screenshot; nearly the whole piece is tweets!)

Now think about what this sort of journalism means. First, it abnegates reporting by journalists, whose jobs now can consist of trawling Twitter for reactions. Second, it makes those reactions the focus of the piece; but the story is not about social media. In the case above,. it’s about a walkout of students during Pence’s graduation address at Notre Dame. Finally, twitter-trawling is often associated with biased reporting (picking those tweets that you find ideologically convenient) and is simply LAZY.

Now we already have a word for website articles that consist of lists, like the one below: they’re listicles. 

How about a word for articles that consist of Tw**ts? I will pick a winner, though there’s no material prize.

136 thoughts on “We need a word”

      1. I was going for ‘twats’, but that probably more aptly refers to the compilers of such lists.

        cr

        1. Maximum output for minimum work? In general, that is considered a sign of intelligence. To quote my favourite philosopher, “Ancient Philosopher he say – progress made by lazy barsteward looking for easier way!”

  8. To use it as a noun, would ‘lackadaisicle’ need to end with ‘le’? Journalists who write articles filled with tweets probably couldn’t be bothered to decide, but I can’t think of an adjective for that.

  9. Three Tweets To The Wind

    … for the lists, I prefer either listactite or listagmite,.. listicle is … something, I don’t know what.

    1. listicle is … something, I don’t know what.

      I don’t know what it is either, but it sounds like it should melt under the light of the Sun.

  15. I would expand the definition of either:

    tweedle, tweedling:

    1. (Music, other) obsolete to play (a musical instrument) aimlessly or carelessly
    2. (tr) slang to scam or counterfeit

    or

    tweezes:

    pluck with tweezers; “tweeze facial hair”
    pluck, pull off, tweak, pick off – pull or pull out sharply; “pluck the flowers off the bush”

    – both definitions from freedictionary.com

    1. I like these, particularly (1)
      There’s also “teazle” – a plant used for changing the lay of fibres in a cloth. But it loses the alliteration.
      “twaddle” is nonsensical talk – which fits too.

  20. Tweegurgitation

    Like a momma bird puking up some goodies for her idiot kids.

  23. Tweemesis.

    Or, depending on personal taste, such articles could be Tweemetics.

    1. Nah, that’s already in use, with quite a different meaning.
      I Tw**d myself a couple of days ago to the effect that “there’s a twitstorm going on as astronomers get light buckets lined up to observe the current light dip from “Tabby#s Star”.

      1. “Tweed” is both a fabric and the river/ region where it is made in the Borders.

  37. Only too obviously, “tweetsicle” — which will be the winner by popular vote.

    Eric Salzman

  40. I don’t know. All the obvious blends starting with “twi/twe/twa” ring in my ears as cute or obscene–and don’t quite succeed in belittling the venue.

  45. The general phenomenon is tweetsourcing (or maybe “twitsourcing” if the selections are inane or annoying enough to warrant it).

    So the articles in question are tweetsourced articles.

    The question of how lengthy a prison sentence should be imposed for repeat offenses is still open, though.

  47. Of course huge amounts of journalism nowadays is just reporting what people said about something, not reporting the something itself.

    At least twittersourcing makes it obvious up front that you can ignore it.

  49. I will eschew variation on “tweet” or “twat” (most of the good ones being taken above) and suggestion a simple collection name like murder of crows. Pointless. A Pointless of tweets.

    2. Not exactly “LOL”, but I did audibly titter at that.

      Makes about as much sense as the other collection names.

  51. On second thought, I nominate “twizel”, after the town in Mackenzie District, in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand’s South Island. Quirky place. I asked around about how it got the name and no one knew.

    1. @Stephen Barnard re “twizel”

      The town is named after the Twizel River
      The river was named by John Turnbull Thomson, British, Victorian civil engineer who explored & surveyed NZ & developed the infrastructure
      JTT was born in Northumberland, England
      He took the name from the Twizel Bridge in Northumberland
      Twizel came from ‘twizla’, meaning fork of a river

      [although I can find no evidence for that fork of a river bit here in the UK – it’s the claim of a NZ gov website]. Over here a twizla is someone who rolls their own wacky backy ciggies, originating from the Rizla brand of cigarette papers & ‘twisting’, I assume, which is what’s done to stop the backy falling out!

      According to Wiki: It has been suggested that JTT intended to give Maori names, but these were refused. In response, Thomson gave prosaic Northumbrian names to many places, often simply in the form of a Northumbrian dialectic name for an animal. The Maniototo region around the town of Ranfurly, Central Otago is rife with such names as Kyeburn, Gimmerburn, Hoggetburn, and Wedderburn as a result, and the area is still occasionally referred to as “Thomson’s Barnyard”

  59. Regurgeatweet

    thejournal.ie

    fecal repeat syndrome

    group tweet devolution

    punctuatedtweets

    1. illegitimīs

      first meaning illegal
      second meaning illegitimate

      or so translates le-google
      both? apropos

  67. I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned it yet, but, to me, the worst part about this “journalism” is it allows any ideological narrative to be created. Find a handful of tweets from trolls and insane people and BAM, you have an “epidemic” of X terrible thing. Just look at the completely fake Bernie Bros narrative.

    1. Agreed.

      You can find almost any viewpoint you like in a tweetstorm. Selective quoting is almost inevitable.

      cr

  75. Twash.

    There could even be a rating system to determine how many Oscars to give a particularly bad article. As Oscar the Grouch once sang, “I love twash!”

  82. To make it easier on Jerry, here’s the compiled list so far (alphabetized, of course!)

    Artweecle
    Artweetle
    Attesticles
    Attwesticles
    Banalitter
    Bulltwit
    Chirpicle
    Churnalism
    Clicktweets
    Clustertwits
    Copypaste Journalism
    Cut-And-Pasticles
    Dim-(T)Witicle
    Fake News
    Fecal Repeat Syndrome
    Flock Of Twaticles
    Group Tweet Devolution
    Guano
    Illegitimis
    Lackadaisicle
    Pointless
    Pointlist
    Punctuatedtweets
    Regurgeatweet
    Regurgitweets Article
    Shower Of Bollocks
    Storfies
    Teazle
    The Twilette Papers
    The Yellow Tweets
    Threadbares
    Three Tweets To The Wind
    Twaddle
    Twarticles
    Twash
    Twaste (Tweet Copy-And-Paste)
    Twatbait
    Twaticle
    Twats
    Twattle
    Tweature
    Twee
    Twee (Tweet Tree)
    Tweed
    Tweed (Tweet Read)
    Tweedle
    Tweegurgitation
    Tweemesis
    Tweemetics
    Tweet De Suite
    Tweetabix
    Tweetabix
    Tweetarray
    Tweetbait
    Tweeter Journalism
    Tweetessay
    Tweeticles
    Tweeticles
    Tweetinabulism
    Tweetise
    Tweetledeedums
    Tweetledumbs
    Tweetnest
    Tweetorial
    Tweetpile
    Tweetsalad
    Tweetsheet
    Tweetsheets
    Tweetsicle
    Tweetsourced
    Tweet-Spotting
    Tweetsuite
    Tweettrash
    Tweezes
    Twerpettes
    Twerpies
    Twerps
    Twiece
    Twisticle (“Tweet List Article”)
    Twit What
    Twitbits
    Twit-Cerise Or Twote-Cerise?
    Twitdump
    Twiterature
    Twiticles
    Twititorial
    Twitlit
    Twitrash
    Twitrot
    Twits
    Twitshit
    Twitstorm
    Twittacles
    Twitteralities
    Twittercrutch
    Twittermalgamation
    Twitterrhea
    Twitterrhea
    Twittersourcing
    Twittery
    Twittilists
    Twittle
    Twittle
    Twittle
    Twittle-Twattle
    Twit-Twat Aka Twittwat
    Twizel
    Tworrent

  85. Thanks folks for the corrections. Looks like editing is turned off, so here’s an updated list:

    Artweecle
    Artweetle
    Attesticles
    Attwesticles
    Banalitter
    Bulltwit
    Chirpicle
    Churnalism
    Clicktweets
    Clustertwits
    Copypaste Journalism
    Cut-And-Pasticles
    Dim-(T)Witicle
    Fake News
    Fecal Repeat Syndrome
    Flock Of Twaticles
    Group Tweet Devolution
    Guano
    Guanosition (from “composition”)
    Illegitimis
    Lackadaisicle
    Pointless
    Pointlist
    Punctuatedtweets
    Regurgeatweet
    Regurgitweets Article
    Rehash
    Shower Of Bollocks
    Storfies
    Teazle
    The Twilette Papers
    The Yellow Tweets
    Threadbares
    Three Tweets To The Wind
    Twaddle
    Twarticles
    Twash
    Twaste (Tweet Copy-And-Paste)
    Twatbait
    Twaticle
    Twats
    Twattle
    Tweature
    Twee
    Twee (Tweet Tree)
    Tweed
    Tweed (Tweet Read)
    Tweedle
    Tweegurgitation
    Tweemesis
    Tweemetics
    Tweet De Suite
    Tweetabix
    Tweetabix
    Tweetarray
    Tweetbait
    Tweeter Journalism
    Tweetessay
    Tweeticles
    Tweeticles
    Tweetinabulism
    Tweetise
    Tweetledeedums
    Tweetledumbs
    Tweetnest
    Tweetophany
    Tweetorial
    Tweetpile
    Tweetsalad
    Tweetsheet
    Tweetsheets
    Tweetsicle
    Tweetsourced
    Tweet-Spotting
    Tweetsuite
    Tweettrash
    Tweezes
    Twerpettes
    Twerpies
    Twerps
    Twiece
    Twisticle (“Tweet List Article”)
    Twit Twat
    Twit What
    Twitbits
    Twit-Cerise Or Twote-Cerise?
    Twitdump
    Twiterature
    Twiticles
    Twititorial
    Twitlit
    Twitrash
    Twitrot
    Twits
    Twitshit
    Twitstorm
    Twittacles
    Twitteralities
    Twittercrutch
    Twittermalgamation
    Twitterrhea
    Twitterrhea
    Twittersourcing
    Twittery
    Twitter Litter
    Twittilists
    Twittle
    Twittle
    Twittle
    Twittle-Twattle
    Twit-Twat Aka Twittwat
    Twizel
    Tworrent

        1. I didn’t mean the “too”, just to comment that it IS vulgar – if that’s what you’re going for.

      2. Although I know next to nothing about Twitter, I do know that hashtags seem to be key – so here is a brief explanation: “A hashtag—written with a # symbol—is used to index keywords or topics on Twitter. This function was created on Twitter, and allows people to easily follow topics they are interested in.” Thus I think that Ant’s #rehash sums up the rehash of tweets. Disclaimer – I am not a paid lobbyist for Ant 🙂

      3. Tweetsourced journalism. Counterpart of many other X-sourcing words (like crowdsourcing).

        Accurate and no cringe.

      4. That was my fave, too!

        (BTW, my entry, guano, was not intended to be seriously considered–it’s just an expression of my opinion of these twitter-cles. And a way of subbing that’s slightly less boring than “sub.”)

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