Twitter is a social networking and microblogging site that enables people to post 140character statuses and messages called 'tweets.' Users can send and receive tweets and subscribe to other users' tweets (known as 'following'.) Users have no public 'profile' therefore share a limited amount of personal information. This means that many celebrities use Twitter, as it allows them to communicate information such as tour dates and if they wish, communicate directly with their fans.
Twitter has not only changed the way celebrities communicate with their fans, it has also affecting the way people access and hear about news. Twitter means that people can 'tweet' about a news story as it happens, without having to go through any institutions. This also means that there is no gatekeeping; people can decide what they think is newsworthy and share it instantly. Twitter also has a feature known as 'trending topics' meaning that if loads of people are posting about one particular topic, it will appear at the side of all users' screens as trending. This means that many users find out about big and breaking news stories through Twitter first. 'Trending topics" can also help to spread awareness of a particular campaign or news story, as was the case with the Riven Vincent and Mumsnet story.
Twitter has also made it into the news as the subject of many stories and can be said to be changing the news in that way as well. A recent example is the case of Sarah Baskerville, an adminstration manager in the Department for Transport who posted some unprofessional tweets ('She was critical of the coalition's cuts, attacked Downing Street "spin" and told her 700 followers that the leader of a training course she attended was "mental"') that ended up being printed by The Daily Mail and The Independent on Sunday. She complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) that she had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" when she made them. She also pointed to a disclaimer on her Twitter page that her tweets represented her views and not those of her employer. However the PCC ruled in favour of the newspapers, stating that the fact that tweets are publicly accessible on the web was a key consideration. "It was quite clear that the potential audience for the information was actually much larger than the 700 people who followed the complainant directly, not least because any message could easily be retweeted to a wider audience," the regulator said.
This story shows that Twitter is not only changing the way the general public can access news, but also the way the press access stories too. If celebrities publish tweets these can then be used as quotes to back up stories by the press and with the PCC saying that it is acceptable behaviour it may well start to become a more regular occurrence.
Link to original news story;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8311522/Twitter-messages-not-private-rules-press-watchdog.html
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Case Study: Riven Vincent's post on Mumsnet
A story broke today about a mother of a disabled child from Bristol who posted a message on the website Mumsnet, which is a forum where mum's can discuss parenting issues. Riven Vincent's post received a huge response from the online community, with 1914 responses. From these responses, a huge campaign began, with thousands of people emailing and writing to David Cameron (after the addresses were posted on the Mumsnet forum,) contacting various newspapers that they had contacts with and also starting a Twitter campaign, getting celebrities such as Katie Price (who has a disabled son, as well as millions of Twitter followers) to retweet Riven's story causing it to become a trending topic. This furor has lead to David Cameron becoming aware of the problem and has lead to discussions between him and Riven.
This is the perfect example of how Internet has changed the news, as none of this would have been possible without the interent. For a start, the Mumsnet forum was what allowed Riven to post her problem and have it read by it's 600,000 registered users in the first place. As the forum made it easy for her to share this issue with so many people and for users to give feedback, it created a big stir, with new comments being posted every minute. This kind of response would simply not have been possible without the interent. The internet also played an instrumental role in spreading awareness of Riven's problem, particularly Twitter, where it became a trending topic. It could be described as 'going viral;' it appaeared to be opping up everywhere, in a way that could only happen becuase of the interent. In this case the internet did not only help to give the story a huge amount of coverage quickly but it can also be argued that without the internet (more specifically, Mumsnet) it wouldn't have even been a news story at all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-12237100
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12238447
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1129157-have-asked-ss-to-take-dd-into-care
This is the perfect example of how Internet has changed the news, as none of this would have been possible without the interent. For a start, the Mumsnet forum was what allowed Riven to post her problem and have it read by it's 600,000 registered users in the first place. As the forum made it easy for her to share this issue with so many people and for users to give feedback, it created a big stir, with new comments being posted every minute. This kind of response would simply not have been possible without the interent. The internet also played an instrumental role in spreading awareness of Riven's problem, particularly Twitter, where it became a trending topic. It could be described as 'going viral;' it appaeared to be opping up everywhere, in a way that could only happen becuase of the interent. In this case the internet did not only help to give the story a huge amount of coverage quickly but it can also be argued that without the internet (more specifically, Mumsnet) it wouldn't have even been a news story at all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-12237100
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12238447
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1129157-have-asked-ss-to-take-dd-into-care
Saturday, 15 January 2011
The Long Tail Theory
I planned to present this information using Xtranormal, a video making website that used to be free. However once I had made me video, I discovered that you now had to pay to publish them! So unfortunately, I've had to just write it into my blog instead.
The Long Tail Theory was written by Chris Anderson and is a description of how the internet has changed economics and consumption. The theory points out that the internet allows people to look for and share a wider variety of products meaning that people buy less of more. There is a much stronger demand for niche products now, thanks to the internet.
The Long tail theory applies to all aspects of media, including online news. Large national newspapers (and their respective websites) offer a little of something for everyone; they include many news stories in the hope that everyone will be able to find something they are interested in. The long tail theory suggests that these sort of sites could be 'dying out' and that if people are looking for a story on a particular topic (for example a certain celebrity) they are more likely to go to a niche online community (a forum or fan group of that celebrity) to find out about it then a national newspaper's website. However, it can also be argued that when a big news story breaks, people go to their favourite ‘long-established, brand name, general-topic’ news website to read about it, meaning that these sorts of sites still have a place on the web.
I used this website in my research: http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2006/07/why_the_long_tail_wont_work_fo.php
The Long Tail Theory was written by Chris Anderson and is a description of how the internet has changed economics and consumption. The theory points out that the internet allows people to look for and share a wider variety of products meaning that people buy less of more. There is a much stronger demand for niche products now, thanks to the internet.
The Long tail theory applies to all aspects of media, including online news. Large national newspapers (and their respective websites) offer a little of something for everyone; they include many news stories in the hope that everyone will be able to find something they are interested in. The long tail theory suggests that these sort of sites could be 'dying out' and that if people are looking for a story on a particular topic (for example a certain celebrity) they are more likely to go to a niche online community (a forum or fan group of that celebrity) to find out about it then a national newspaper's website. However, it can also be argued that when a big news story breaks, people go to their favourite ‘long-established, brand name, general-topic’ news website to read about it, meaning that these sorts of sites still have a place on the web.
I used this website in my research: http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2006/07/why_the_long_tail_wont_work_fo.php
Monday, 10 January 2011
Facebook- an example of Web 2.0
All social networking sites, such as MySpace and Twitter, are examples of web 2.0 however by far the most popular of the these sites is Facebook. The site's statistics state that Facebook has over 500 million active users, with 50% of these users logging on to Facebook on any given day. The average user has 130 friends and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
As mention previously, Facebook is a social networking site. It allows users to keep in touch with their friends in a number of ways (private messaging, wall posts or the instant messaging service Facebook chat) as well as uploading an unlimited amount of photos, share links and videos, create events and connect to many different groups or companies who have a Facebook page. Each user has their own 'profile', in which they can share as little or as much information about themselves as they want. They can then start connecting with their friends who use Facebook by sending them a 'friend request.' If the 'friend request' is approved by the recipient, this gives people access to each others profiles and means that they can communicate with each other. Users can also post 'statuses' which lets all their friends know something at the same time.
Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin. They launched Facebook from their Harvard dorm room, although it was originally known as 'thefacebook.com.' In 2005 it became known as 'Facebook' and began to take shape into the website we know today, with the photos application being added and the news feed as well as the share application being added the following year. Facebook grew rapidly in popularity in 2009, with active users going from 150 million in January to 350 million in December. It is now widely acknowledged as the most popular social networking site, worldwide.
Facebook is an example of web 2.0 as it's main focus as a website is it's interactivity; users can edit the content of their profiles to suit them, share photos, videos and links with other users and communicate with each other in a number of different ways.
Facebook is used by people of all ages (the minimum sign up age being 13.) Whilst in it's early days, it was mainly used by people who had left school or university and were looking to reconnect with old friends, it now appeals to a much younger demographic. Individuals use it to communicate with friends; it is a useful tool for keeping in touch with friends who they might not see regularly anymore and also sharing news with all of your friends at once (providing that they all use Facebook!) Facebook is also used by companies or celebrities, who can set up pages which users can connect to. They can then use Facebook to advertise new products or in the case of celebrities, update their fans about what they are up to.
As mention previously, Facebook is a social networking site. It allows users to keep in touch with their friends in a number of ways (private messaging, wall posts or the instant messaging service Facebook chat) as well as uploading an unlimited amount of photos, share links and videos, create events and connect to many different groups or companies who have a Facebook page. Each user has their own 'profile', in which they can share as little or as much information about themselves as they want. They can then start connecting with their friends who use Facebook by sending them a 'friend request.' If the 'friend request' is approved by the recipient, this gives people access to each others profiles and means that they can communicate with each other. Users can also post 'statuses' which lets all their friends know something at the same time.
Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin. They launched Facebook from their Harvard dorm room, although it was originally known as 'thefacebook.com.' In 2005 it became known as 'Facebook' and began to take shape into the website we know today, with the photos application being added and the news feed as well as the share application being added the following year. Facebook grew rapidly in popularity in 2009, with active users going from 150 million in January to 350 million in December. It is now widely acknowledged as the most popular social networking site, worldwide.
Facebook is an example of web 2.0 as it's main focus as a website is it's interactivity; users can edit the content of their profiles to suit them, share photos, videos and links with other users and communicate with each other in a number of different ways.
Facebook is used by people of all ages (the minimum sign up age being 13.) Whilst in it's early days, it was mainly used by people who had left school or university and were looking to reconnect with old friends, it now appeals to a much younger demographic. Individuals use it to communicate with friends; it is a useful tool for keeping in touch with friends who they might not see regularly anymore and also sharing news with all of your friends at once (providing that they all use Facebook!) Facebook is also used by companies or celebrities, who can set up pages which users can connect to. They can then use Facebook to advertise new products or in the case of celebrities, update their fans about what they are up to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)