Today, the French regional elections did more than just putting President Sarkozy's party aside, it also discredited television as the number one media for major political events.
The Internet was the first media to reveal the estimates of French people's votes, two hours before the official results. Journalists played a major role in this leak of information by posting the first results on Twitter. Since I wasn't able to follow the elections on television, I must say that I was not against the idea of being aware of what was happening.
But what I didn't know is that what happend online was totally illegal. The French law on the publication of elections' results is pretty clear, and the journalists took a considerable risk. That's why they erased their tweets within the next minute, just so the followers have the time to take over the information. The Internet is moving so fast that it's becoming out of control, almost like a place where rules don't apply.
When the actual official results came on TV two hours later, people were tweeting and commenting the shows, pointing out how late television is. This exemple shows that people can no longer wait for information. Not that the Internet got us used to immediacy, we can't go back. That's why I think we are facing the time when television has become obsolete.
So when people will start to ask you where you were when television died, you will probably answer Twitter!
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