So 6music has won a reprieve meaning it will no longer be closed, as originally proposed by the Beeb’s senior management team. This is good news for all those who campaigned for its survival- from high profile celebs through to listeners who, like me, filled in the loooong public consultation form (that took me back to my essay writing days!)

However, although plenty of people filled in the official consultation, the campaign for 6s survival was also an excellent example of using social networking to galvanise people’s support. Group after group sprung up on Facebook and every time it cheerily told me a friend had signed up to save 6music I felt that little bit guiltier that I hadn’t got around to tackling the long form yet. On Twitter, alongside becoming a trending topic, I found I could attach a readymade ‘twibbon’ to my picture telling others to ’save 6music.’

I was a little concerned that all this meant people were shouting publicly to save the station but that no-one would actually fill in the all important official consultation and therefore it would amount to nothing. In fact 78% of people submitting the form were arguing to save the station and on top of this, even if many people failed to go through official routes, it seems the sheer voracity of online campaigning may have swayed the officials’ opinions. At last I joined a Facebook group that had an effect rather than ‘if 500 people join this group, I’ll marry my hamster!’

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