How Microblogging and Twitter helped me!
Java et al describes microblogging as ‘a new form of communication in which users can describe their current status in short posts distributed by instant messages, mobile phones, email or the Web. Twitter, a popular microblogging tool has seen a lot of growth since it launched in October 2006’.
Microblogging was extremely helpful to me whilst doing my research regarding celebrity journalism as it allowed me to do polls on Twitter and Instagram and gain feedback from my followers and understand their views.
Furthermore, as my blog is on celebrity journalism, I was instantly able to check celebrities’ social media accounts to see if their content aligned with my arguments and how this further reiterated what I was saying. An example of this was when I was writing my blog post on the Kardashians, their huge social media platforms meant it was very useful to gain an insight into how they market their own content to gain a greater following.
Ebner and Sheifner (2008), argue that microblogging is so successful due to its three main components — usability, collaboration and personality. They say that it is ‘easy to blog (usability) as no special skills are necessary to create a new contribution.’. They continue to argue that ‘people connect with each other, discuss topics they are interested in’ and as the ‘contributions are written from a subjective perspective’ that reflects the personality aspect of it.
Regarding my Twitter feed throughout my research, the accessibility of microblogging made is so easy gain information from my own followers as well as reading tweets from others. The ‘list’ we were advised to make on Twitter really helped narrow down the tweets that were helpful for my blog and keep my feed relevant on topic to not get distracted by everything else on Twitter!
Furthermore, the subjective stance of the Tweets on my feed meant the freedom of speech that Twitter users have is both a blessing and a curse. Of course it is vital everyone has the right to say what they want to say and Twitter is a great place for this, yet it can also lead to the spread of Fake News, as I’ve discussed in a previous blog. It relies on the user’s own understanding of how subjectivity can result in Fake News and realising not everything on Twitter is factually correct.
Clearly, every social media platform has its ups and downs, and Twitter is no different, yet it has been very helpful in gaining research for my journalism blogs and I find it to be a very accessible platform.
