Tuesday 21 December 2010

Did a film decide who won Time Magazine's Person of the Year?

I know a few people took punts with betting agencies on who would win Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Most of them were expecting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to win the, I guess esteemed, prize. This may be because, after threatening to leak the world's secrets and air its dirty laundry for months but not that loudly, he did it, but only late this year. So, people react to recent news and forget older news, it seems. Still, the Chilean Miners saga was not forgotten and they were also in the running for Time's prize, with bookmakers.

But why was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg being punted? What did he achieve this year that he did not last year or the year before. Facebook has been exploding for a while. Does it really matter if he had increased Facebook's members by about 100-million accounts this year?

I know Time will argue it can make a case for him winning but I believe it is because the founding of his company was documented in the book The Facebook Effect, published this year. Another book, the Accidental Billionaires, was published not to long before it but the film based upon it surely brought the multi-billion dollar company into prominence.

David Fincher-directed The Social Network has garnered commercial and critical praise especially for its creation of the Zuckerberg character, played by Jesse Eisenberg, someone the audience is made to admire but maybe hate.

It is quickly becoming a favourite with awarders so expect it to get more awards than its subject, Mr Zuckerberg.

Alistair Anderson

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