Last night I happened to catch a programme on BBC Radio 4 called The Moral Maze presented by Michael Buerk.

The 45 minute show describes itself as a ‘combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week’s news stories’.

This week the panel discussed the morality of activism on Twitter asking when a popular and spontaneous protest becomes mob rule.

Fans of Twitter have chalked up a couple of notable victories of late. Followers helped to expose a legal injunction against The Guardian and Twitter-led protests generated tens of thousands of complaints against Jan Moir when she wrote a column using the death of Stephen Gately to criticise gay marriage.

Buerk asks whether this net-based protest is a valuable tool to demonstrate popular opinion or are we sacrificing traditional political engagement for the instant gratification direct action?

I urge you all to have a listen (apologies to my non-UK readers who won’t be able to access the Beeb’s iPlayer) as the panel makes some really interesting observations:

However what struck me most was the ignorance of many of the commentators who as much as admitted that they had either never used ‘this Twitter thing’ or had signed up an account a few days prior to the recording.

For me, it was a bit like listening to your granddad give his expert opinion on Dizzee Rascal’s latest musical collaboration. Slightly unsettling.

The programme was co-presented by Kenan Malik, Melanie Phillips, James Panton, Clifford Longley.

Witnesses:

Professor Andrew Chadwick of the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of the book Internet Politics

Brendan O’Neill, journalist, writer and editor of Spiked Online

Nick Cohen, author and Observer journalist

Ben Locker, ‘Twitterer’.