Communications Major

NBC has taken a lot of flack for its tape-delayed Olympic coverage.. The outcry has spawned the Twitter hashtag #nbcfail, which viewers have been appending to their complaints. The network has countered, however, with huge ratings for the prime-time broadcasts. Those ratings — more than the 2008 Beijing Games — seemingly support in-house research that those who have indulged in spoilers before the events are shown on television are actually more likely to watch them.

So, who’s right? The network or Twitter Nation? And how should it affect the future of Olympics coverage?

Leave it to Jodie Foster, the venerable 50-year-old star with the 47-year career, to unbalance the Twitterverse in a way the social network has not quite experienced yet.

Sure, the hijinks and hoo-has of thousands of public figures have lit up Twitter, the online stream-of-consciousness of social media about once a week over the past half decade. But Foster kicked things up a notch with a rambling, off-kilter, pop culty, coming out speech at last Sunday night's Golden Globe awards that made for an instant tweet-up.

Foster, who was being honored with a lifetime achievement award, took the opportunity to touch on topics that are obviously near and dear to her - her need for privacy and her need to confirm an aspect of her private life that has long been, in pre-social media parlance, an "open secret."