Twitter and Google 'more dangerous than newspapers'?

Yesterday the Micah Challenge International team spent the whole day in strategic planning. We finished the day with a 2-hour discussion about social networking, and a stimulating chat about fast-forwarding our approach to media.

So today's papers were of special interest to me. Two articles about social networking were very discouraging. One was about a man who spent 12 hours in custody when he arrived in the US. His tweet saying he would "destroy America", was taken rather literally by the security forces that tracked his tweet. And then there was the case of a senior editor who put out a warning that Twitter and Google are far more dangerous than newspapers.

If you're looking for an excuse to let the new world of electronic media pass you by, these stories are great excuses!

But there was another story that really caught my attention. It was a kind of triumph of self-affirmation, which came from the Queens Park Rangers captain, Joey Barton. Fed up with vilification and misrepresentation in the traditional press, Joey Barton took to tweeting. Within two days he had a following of 60,000 people - a personal audience to whom he could tell his own version of himself. Not the 'bad boy' of football, but the articulate and honest man of integrity as he sees himself. A one to 60,000 private/public conversation!

So what's wrong with personal spin? You could argue everybody does it!

The question for people like me and Christian ministries like ours, is how much will the huge opportunities of social networking open up greater opportunities to spread the Truth we believe or the truth about ourselves as we choose to see it?