A couple of months ago on Twitter, the Media Guardian account tweeted “The X-Files reboot to be broadcast on Channel 5 in 2016”
The X-Files reboot to be broadcast on Channel 5 in 2016 https://t.co/zCmXfI707w pic.twitter.com/hzkoBVxOO2
— Media Guardian (@mediaguardian) December 10, 2015
Good news! But, it isn’t a reboot. It’s a new series. I did reply to that effect, and they have – to their credit – changed “reboot” to “return” in the headline on the article it links to. But the tweet remains, and it has also been tweeted verbatim by the main Guardian twitter account.
Is this really a big deal? Certainly there are more important things happening in the world. But is is yet another example of how the media get hold of a “new” word, completely fail to properly understand what it means, then repeatedly misuse it until its meaning is forced to change.
We have long since lost the word “hacker”. More recently, “troll” has completely lost its meaning. No doubt “selfie” is at risk, as – it seems – is “reboot”. So please, media people, stop grabbing hold of “new” words and ruining them for everyone else.