“Chapter 1: What is Twitter?” (p. 1-13) by Dhiraj Murthy from “Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age.”
This week’s reading is talking about the social media platform of Twitter. Twitter has been a recent internet craze that people are using to publish personal content. Murthy talks about how Twitter is a form of a microblog because it is like a daily log or journal of your activities. People publish content on Twitter without expecting any sort of response. They just do it in order to post information or news about themselves, so that people can get to know them on a global scale. Because of this, Murthy emphasizes how Twitter is a form of social media, rather than social networking. For social networking sites such as Facebook, the main purpose is to create connections between people. Social networking sites are very publishing-oriented, while social media sites (such as Twitter) are very broadcast-based. Social media is more about people being aware of a certain person’s content, rather than creating global connections between people. Twitter is much more focused on its audience rather than sites like Facebook, because you are publishing pieces of yourself, and you don’t really know who’s receiving this information. Murthy calls this “interactive multicasting,” in which people don’t really care who sees or hears what they tweet, as long as it IS being seen or heard. Therefore, Twitter is such an important part of technology because it’s creating vital changes within digital communication.
Links:
- “What Facebook and Twitter Mean For News” – http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2012/mobile-devices-and-news-consumption-some-good-signs-for-journalism/what-facebook-and-twitter-mean-for-news/
- “Facebook vs. Twitter: Which is best for your brand?” – http://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-vs-twitter/
- “Social Media vs. Social Networking” – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fauzia-burke/social-media-vs-social-ne_b_4017305.html
Discussion Questions:
- Does a person’s Twitter reflect a coherent self or a splintered self?
- The author doesn’t really emphasize Twitter’s privacy settings. Is it more uncommon to have your Twitter on private? Why?
CAS 201 Reading Blog 