Twitter is a
widely used form of social media, where people can post statuses in 140
characters or less (known as tweets). Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has
become one of the most popular and successful social networking services. It
has over 140 million users and is the 8th most popular website in
the world. It has had a tremendous impact on the way information is circulated,
because tweets can reach a wide audience almost instantly. Twitter has changed
its initial motto from “What are you doing now?” to “Share and discover what’s
happening right now, anywhere in the world.” Analyzing the hashtags (#) of
Twitter gives us an accurate depiction of its most popular trends. Things start
to get interesting when one compares the trending topics on Twitter with
national and world news headlines (from a reputable source, such as the New York Times and CNN). There are many differences and parallelisms between the two
forms of media.
Looking at the news networks and
newspapers, these more traditional forms of media have headlines that are more
serious in nature. As of June 23rd,
headlines are mostly centered around the constant tension and unrest in the
Middle East. The world section of the New
York Times has articles on the state of democracy in Libya and Egypt, the
residual effects of the Arab Spring. Articles such as “Libya Democracy Clashes
With Fervor for Jihad” and “In Egypt, Declaration of Winner in Presidential
Contest Is Said to Be Near” speak of these nations’ futures with uncertainty.
Both the New York Times and CNN world sections have articles on the
recent turmoil in Syria, caused by President al-Assad’s oppression. The CNN article, “Top Turkish officials in
meetings after Syria downs Turkish jet,” analyzes the potential international
crisis that has been brewing between these two independent nations. There’s also a focus on China, with articles
on the Chinese dissident, Ai Weiwei, and China’s space program eventually
surpassing NASA.
On the national scale, there’s a
wider variety of topics that are more relevant in the lives of American
citizens. Both outlets have articles on Obama’s and Romney’s Presidential
campaigns. There is an article on whether or not Obama-care will be stopped by
the Supreme Court. Another passage states that Penn State pedophile Jerry
Sandusky is on suicide watch following his sentencing. On the lighter side,
there’s a few articles covering the Miami Heat’s win in the 2012 NBA Finals.
Based on the preceding news topics
and headlines, we can see that legacy media news outlets focus their headlines
on fairly serious topics.
According to a long term study done
by Pear Analytics, only 4% of tweets on Twitter are news-based. Regardless of
that seemingly low number, many news outlets release headlines on Twitter, and
many people rely on Twitter for news. A Journalism.org article stated that
while the majority of top stories on legacy media were dedicated towards the
Economy, the majority of news on Twitter was based on Middle Eastern unrest.
Based on the preceding news topics
and headlines, it is safe to assume that these articles are presented in an
un-biased manner. In my opinion, the agenda of the legacy media is easier to
identify than Twitter’s. There is a constant worry about an escalation of
violence in the Middle East, a region that the United States polices. Along
with the explosive growth of China, the objective here may be to strike fear
into the hearts of the public, indirectly controlling them. The actions of
Obama and Romney are being scrutinized due to the upcoming elections. The
media’s increased focus on the President every four years is often criticized
because it causes the executive politician in office to expedite the political
agenda, getting things done as fast as possible while keeping their reputations
as positive as possible. In my opinion, it is a shame that certain topics like
campaign politics control all of the limelight from the more pressing issues.
Looking at a new Twitter account I
made (I have not followed anybody, altering my trends) on June 23rd,
the global trends are much more sports and pop culture based. Hashtags with the
words Laurent Blanc, Lionel Messi, Hackney Weekend, Greyson Michael Chance and
Swedish House Mafia dominate. The only politically related hashtag is one
containing Elena Valenciano, a former Spanish parliament member and a member of
the Spanish Socialist Worker’s party. Laurent Blanc and Lionel Messi are both
professional footballers (French and Argentine respectively); which is relevant
due to the Eurocup taking place. Hackney Weekend is a major British music
festival taking place soon. Greyson Michael Chance is a young boy on YouTube
who covers famous songs. Swedish House Mafia is an electronic music group, who
made headlines when they announced that they would be breaking up at the end of
their next tour. The most popular U.S. Twitter trends are mostly meaningless
conversation topics (#stillup, #OFTrivia, #SomethingIgetalot etc.). Not
surprisingly, Hashtag Syria is on the list.
In my opinion, Twitter’s agenda is
the same as any other social media entity’s, to get people to act as social as
possible. This drives Twitter’s revenue. Compared to Legacy Media, the user
demographic is completely different. There is a much younger generation
utilizing Twitter than the generation utilizing newspapers. As a result, pop
culture and sports come into play much more as Twitter’s trending
hashtags. However, traditional news
entities still see the value in Twitter as evidenced above. They realize that
it can help generate traffic to their websites by posting headlines and article
links. People can see these topics immediately on pretty much any current
mobile device. This allows for emergency messages from news groups and other
entities (like FEMA) to be relayed instantly to the public. Twitter is also
credited for adding to the validity of the news, due to “crowdsourcing.” This
means that a person can read about the same topic from many people and not have
to rely on a Google algorithm or a single potentially biased news source.
Overall, the agendas of legacy media
and Twitter are very different but also similar in a few ways. Legacy media
stands to inform the public, but it ends up scaring it and putting too much
emphasis on certain topics. More biased forms may try to indirectly control
people. The purpose of Twitter is to get people to communicate, by sharing
their opinions and experiences. The more traffic it receives, the more it can
sell promoted tweets and trends to private companies. Both forms of media are
common in the way they make money, through traffic (be it the website visitors,
paper circulations, or TV ratings), which allows them to sell advertisements. I
believe that Twitter is here to stay and will continue to innovate for years to
come.
Works Cited
CNN. Cable News Network, n.d.
Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.CNN.com/US/>.
CNN. Cable News Network, n.d.
Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.CNN.com/WORLD/>.
"How
Mainstream Media Outlets Use Twitter." Project for Excellence in
Journalism (PEJ). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 June 2012.
<http://www.journalism.org/node/27311>.
"Keiths.blog."
Twitter vs. News : How Twitter Is Chaging the News. N.p., n.d. Web. 24
June 2012.
<http://www.keithrozario.com/2011/07/twitter-vs-news-how-they-reported-the-oslo-bombing.html>.
The
New York Times.
The New York Times, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/index.html>.
The
New York Times.
The New York Times, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012.
<http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/index.html>.
Twitter
Study - August 2009.
Pear Analytics, n.d. Web. <http://www.pearanalytics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Twitter-Study-August-2009.pdf>.
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