A medium is a means of mass communication, such as television, radio, or newspapers. Harold Innis, a leading scholar of communication and media theories, separated media into two categories, time-biased and space-biased. Time-biased media last longer but reach few, while space-biased mediums reach many but are short lived. Twitter is a social form of media, which sends short messages that have the potential of a massive audience on a global scale, putting in Harold Innis’ category of a space-biased form of media.
As mentioned, Twitter is a social medium that allows its two hundred million users (twitter.com) to send out one hundred and forty character long messages, or tweets, to the world. Members “follow” other users whose tweets they want to see on their home feed. By default, tweets are visible to the public, including non-twitter members, but users have the option to make their tweets private. Users can “retweet” another someone else’s tweet, which will prompt that tweet to be shown to all of the retweeter’s followers. Twitter also utilizes hashtags, which are words or phrases typed following a “#” sign which lead users to other tweets with the same hashtag.
The site launched in 2006 but gained the bulk of its popularity in 2012 when the site surpassed five hundred million registered users. (techcrunch.com) As of September 2013 data from the company showed that their millions of users send out four hundred million tweets per day. (theguardian.com) Due to it’s extreme success Twitter announced it would file for an IPO. Seventy million Twitter shared were priced at $26 and on it’s first day of trading on the New York Stock exchange they closed at $44.90. This valued the company at thirty-one billion dollars. (BBC)
Twitter is ...
... middle of paper ...
...that as a culture moves towards spatial-biased media it deviates from temporal-biased media, or vice verse. However, Twitters short exposure time does not limit its potential of influence and power. A phenomena known as “Twitter Revolutions” have emerged, which Twitter is used to organize protest, most notably the Egyptian revolution in 2011. This potential for influence has led to government blocks in some countries.
Twitter is a social form of media falling into Harold Innis’ category of a space-biased type of media, because even with its short messages it has the potential of reaching a massive audience on a theoretically global scale, but having a minimal exposure period. Twitter provides an example of America and cultures like it wanting to make information available quicker to more people, but doing so while sacrificing information sustainability over time.
“Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell is an article published in the Annals of Innovation, by The New Yorker magazine. Gladwell starts with an example of true activism. He opens the article with a depiction of how the Greensboro sit-ins contributed to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Then the author supplies two examples of protests that have taken place in recent years that some people have said were started and organized on Twitter. He then goes on to clarify why Twitter was not a factor in these events and how media and government can distort certain truths about social media’s role in protests. The author continues the article by explaining why communication and relationships were more efficient before the era of social media and then compares social networking from the past and now. He uses this strategy to illustrate social media’s effect on how we interact and our commitment towards one another. Gladwell goes on to explain the organization of activist groups of the past and its
Though social media has many positives, it serves to be helpful for low risk activism but may be unfavorable for high risk activism.
Presently, two hundred million users send upward of 140 million messages per day, 140-character musings studded with misspellings, slang, and abbreviations. Moreover, it includes harsh truths, memes and also lies. But it has become the most important public sphere for a global, inclusive audience. Therefore, social media sphere like twitter that has often been discredited or not valued as real public engagement has actually transformed itself into the most global, inclusive public sphere where the public is able to engage — whether truthfully or not — and to become more aware and reflective. The public informs the state and especially in a situation where the public is as polarized as in the case of the 2016 American elections, social media especially twitter can be a tool by which the public can still engage with each other to be better
When You tweet, do you tweet for yourself? Do you sit and think about what to tweet before tweeting it? Do you wonder what your followers would think of the tweets you post? In Peggy Orenstein article “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” she claims that people should tweet for themselves and not everyone else. When I say tweet for yourself I’m basically saying that you should tweet what you feel and not what anyone else wants you to tweet. Orenstein feel as if twitter has become a normal part of her life. She feels compelled to tweet and let people know about what’s going on in her life.
The overall company is well liked and admired, with the CEO receiving fantastic feedback as well as the employees. To support this, employees within Twitter have said, “Ready for IPO means good benefit + various projects + strong will for growth … People are awesome: we really care about each other … Fascinating food!” and, “Great food. Plenty of awesome people to collaborate with and learn from. Real sense of care of employees, and a great development environment” (Geekwire). These are only a few comments of the many fabricating the incredible care for employees and a great work environment. Everyone within Twitter collaborates enforcing people to care about concocting a flourishing company and not about their job titles.
Media or medium of communication has been conceptualized to effect and drive information to the greater masses because it’s the venue where information can be linear form of communication. This essay will discuss what it is meant by media according to online Business Dictionary defines as the communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated.” This may include broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet, the Business Dictionary further includes in this definition.
Twitter is an online social media site that offers a way for people all over the world to communicate their thoughts and opinions, as well as share pictures, videos and links. Those who use Twitter are limited to 140 characters, called ‘tweets’, which can be posted to their personal profiles on the site, and made available for others to see. A person viewing the tweet can then respond to the message or ‘retweet’ it. A retweet means that they copy or forward the tweet to their followers. Followers are people who have elected to subscribe to a particular persons Twitter page. This is the general premise of Twitter and some of the common terms used to describe the actions that transpire on this particular social media site.
Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?”(Carr, 2008). Now replace the name “Dave” with any person who is addicted to using Twitter. This is the exact thoughts that usually go through their head at some point in time, at least from personal experience. The idea of a world where nothing is inaccessible, and where free speech is actually free, is rare, therefore, it excites us. However, we tend to take the use of Twitter to the extreme. The hackneyed saying that too much of anything is not good for you definitely proves relevant when it comes to excessive use of any social media site for that matter. It is evident that our society, especially this generation, abuses Twitter. Whether it is as simple as using the site too many times in a day, or abuse in the sense that it is being tarnished by harsh misuse, it is evident that there remains a prevalent issue. As a community, we all acknowledge that technology has taken over our social lives. Nownwhether you believe that it has enhanced or deteriorated communication is subjective, however, means to restrain from actually using sites like Twitter have been very limited. Although it is prevalent that there is a problem, we still find ourselves tweeting as soon as the opportunity presents
Picard, A. P. (2011, March 20). The History of Twitter, 140 Characters At A Time. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/the-history-of-twitter-140-characters-at-a-time/article573416/
The popularity of blogs, twitter, and YouTube has grown throughout the years. These certain social websites have been able to let people converse with people all around the world with just a click with a button. For example, blogs have let people write their stories and share them with the world to either helps others that are having the same issues or just to get their experiences and writing out there in the world for someone to read. In the end blogging helps others communicate and connect with others in surrounding areas or with shared interest. Twitter has the same concept as blogging does. Although blogging doesn’t have a limited amount of words you can write, twitter does. With twitter you use a story that you have and or something you want to say and say the important facts within 140 characters. This allows bloggers and other people out in the world to share important things fast and easy. Twitter, just like blogging allows one to share information to others in common interest and or others around the world. YouTube on the other hand, is just like twitter and blogs except you can actually video yourself and or whatever it is you want to share with others. Overall, the popularity of these three social media sites has grown due to their worldwide coverage. These sites let anyone post anything they would like and it shares with others in
Twitter as a famous social website has obtained its fame recently, and as a new invention such like other websites has its advantages and disadvantages, usually people differ in judging them. Twitter has many advantages first of all it is a new and updated method of contacting and communicating with other, and through it you can reach people who are far away from you. In addition of that it helps you in searching for new friends. Some people find it very difficult to make relation with others around them but, it is easy for them to establish new friendships on Twitter Also through it you can keep in touch and in a good relation with old friends who you haven’t seen for a long time at any place in the world.
The purpose between both Facebook and Twitter is to share one 's information on an online community. Facebook users can write a status with an unlimited character amount about what’s on their minds. For example, the user can express their views on a general topic, share life changing events, or even talk about an event they will attend. Twitter on the other hand, is based on little updates in the user’s daily life, called a tweet. Tweets have a limit character amount of one hundred forty, limiting the thought
The evolution of media, from old media to new media, has transformed the way we understand the world around us. New media is interactive and is user-generated while old media is a more traditional way of communicating through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, etc (Lecture Notes. January 12, 2011). New media gives us a new perspective by allowing us to interact with one another through the Internet. Media has become much more personal and diverse as user-generated content becomes more prominent in our lives (Lecture Notes. January 24, 2011). We are exposed to various viewpoints shape our understanding and knowledge of the social world, but does the form of media actually affect the way we understand the content which is presented to us? For my paper, I will determine whether or not the medium is the message by analyzing two different types of media sources and how they affect our understanding of the content. For my old media source I have chosen a news clip from the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric that deals with the ongoing Egyptian uprising. For my new media source I have chosen a video blog, or ‘vlog’, by an Egyptian man named Omar who discusses the crisis in Egypt from a personal point of view. Both media sources deal with the same topic, but result in different understandings of the crisis.
Media was defines as a ‘medium’ as ‘an intervening means, instrument or agency’: it is a substance or a channel through which effects or information can be carried or transmitted. A medium is something we use when we want to communicate with people indirectly, rather than in person or by face-to-face contact..
Twitter described as the “SMS of the internet” is another online social network created in 2006 by Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass and Biz Stone. Twitter is a social network and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets”, limited to the use of 140 characters. It is mainly used to communicate with other members of similar interests whether they know each other and to follow updates from celebrities. Mark D. Bowles comments: