The Social Implications of Twitter
- The rapid-fire communications capabilities of Twitter allow people at the scene of news events to transmit their observations globally. This Citizen Journalism is no longer limited to natural disasters and sporting events -- people now attend political hearings, legislative sessions and even press conferences just so they can tweet about them to their followers. People who tweet eyewitness news on Twitter are developing their own worldwide followings, completely independent of news organizations.
- One of the more striking applications of Twitter in recent years is as a way for popular uprisings to get their message out to the world, despite government communications crackdowns. Autocratic governments now have a more difficult time enforcing news blackouts during riots, coups and revolutions, because protesters on the scene can report events faster than censors can intercept them.
- Many government agencies, politicians and corporations have established Twitter accounts to take advantage of the social media craze, but they've discovered it is a two-edged sword. Where once these news makers often had hours or even days to respond to breaking events, they now often have just minutes to tweet an initial response. One study by David C. Evans, et al., and published by Psychster Inc. with Microsoft Learning, showed that corporations could significantly reduce the user outrage at site outages by tweeting about them quickly after the event.
- Politicians and other leaders now tweet regularly, but they have seen the trouble that can arise from thoughtless messages or tweets that seem to contradict their public statements. This has lead to the identification of the "Twitter Persona." This is a tweeter who seems to be a famous person but is actually a front for PR staffers parceling out carefully worded messages.
