criticism – The Orbital

Academic Twitter: the Good, the Bad and the Unwarranted Twitter Review

8Jan

By Maliha RezaNo Comments

Opinion

Academic Twitter: the Good, the Bad and the Unwarranted Twitter Review

A simple tweet with the right hashtags will result in students and academics providing answers to the most obscure of questions. For the most part, academic Twitter serves its purpose of connecting people with similar research interests. It has, in many instances, resulted in collaborations between academic Tweeters on articles and books. Nonetheless, disseminating research through the medium of Twitter has its downfalls, namely due to the culture of destructive criticism and satire. People on Twitter have the incessant ability to dissect and ridicule work, revealing the darker side of academic social media: unwarranted criticism. Reviewer two tends to be considered the harsher critic during peer reviews of academic articles, journals and books; however, in recent times, the Twitter re...

I’m A Celebrity: An Experience Regretted

On the 7th December, a most undesirable event befell me. I had the misfortune of seeing, for the first time, the abomination that is I’m A Celebrity. It so happened to be the final, which, helpfully or unhelpfully, provided a recap of the whole series - meaning I was presented not only with the most recent trials, such as the consumption of unappetising parts of both camel and ostrich, but with a horrific past instance of a contestant drinking deer’s blood. I had heard a great deal about this show prior to seeing it, of course. It is extremely difficult to avoid, what with the painful media focus on bikini bodies and jungle flirtations, and the fact that it seems to dominate headlines throughout the few weeks of its run. What I had not realised, however, was the sheer depravity of it. D...

Rich, Russian & Living in London – A Documentary Review

‘Rich, Russian & Living in London’: a title worthy of Channel 4, but it is, in fact, the name of the BBC’s latest foray into cutting-edge documentary. An account of a selection of wealthy Russian-Londoners, we delve into the depths of a world unseen by, and unknown to most of the population. Those of us who cannot afford rhinestone-encrusted Jaguars or whimsically spend hundreds of thousands on an artwork. It is, in a way, for the majority of the documentary, a sort of fetishisation of a high-life, seemingly without care or consequence. A disgustingly gluttonous display of excess. It is appealing. But it is capitalism on steroids. A reaction against years of suppression and corruption in Russia (although the latter is merely hinted at). They have signed up holus-bolus to th...