Web Monitor
15:29 UK time, Monday, 23 November 2009
A celebration of the riches of the web.
Today in Web Monitor: what the timing of Oprah's departure tells the professor of Oprah studies, if vampires ever go out of fashion and Twitter's latest exposé.
• When Oprah Winfrey announced she would give up her US chat show, did she consider the plight of the professor of Oprah studies Janice Peck? Luckily, Prof. Peck expresses relief she can move on from two decades of analysing Oprah's success when . Before she finds another subject to study, Peck does make one final observation: The timing of Oprah's announcement - just after her ratings pulling interview with Sarah Palin - backed up her ethos:
"You've got a person who's entire public persona, and the empire on which it rests, is organised around one idea: that she is the person she is today and she has all of these successes because she is entirely self-actualised. She talks all the time about how she's rid herself of her own demons. If you believe everything you are is how you think, as she professes, then there's no room for any problems. When there's any non-happiness anyplace, it undermines the entire message."
• The question why we are going through a vampire craze at the moment is the wrong one for . They have looked through the various vampire phases and have found that vampires being out of fashion is more unusual. However, based on previous patterns, they predict we may have a restbite from the vampires soon :
"If history is any guide, these plush times of vampire mania will soon end with a run of atrocious imitations, followed by a few years of peace and quiet."
• Over on Web Monitor's Twitter Watch, it's been noted that an exposé of Ambridge may be happening with the aid of Twitter. Ambridge is the rural village set of the radio soap the Archers, normally unseen by its listeners. But the voice of David Archer, , is letting all the secrets out of the bag about the set by posting pictures up on his Twitter account. So far he's exposed that the village gate is played by an ironing board.
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