Twitter as a Social Tool

Social media has completely changed the way that people interact and spread information. Twitter, in particular, has established itself as being one of the most powerful ways for people to communicate with each other. Beyond socializing, Twitter has become an avenue for users to send messages for help during natural disasters, to organize political groups, and inform users about events going on around the world in real time. For example, during the devastating 2017 hurricane in Houston, Twitter was an avenue for those who needed help to reach out to emergency services when 911 services reached capacity. Twitter was a way for information to be shared quickly after the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013. In 2011, Egyptians used Twitter as a tool for organizing and pushing a revolution. These are just a few of the many instances that Twitter has been used to do more than simply socialize.

Twitter can be useful as a journalistic, political, and organizational tool in large part because of the speed and far reach that the content on the platform can receive. Information is instantly spread to millions of users and it is easy for a user to support a cause through hashtags or retweets. Twitter has become an effective organizational tool in the way in which it allows for people to create marches or events and spread the word for publicity and participation. As far as it being a useful journalistic tool, it allows journalists to spread information quickly, as opposed to telling stories in a weekly publication or at a certain time on television. 

Three events that saw Twitter as a major communicator were the #MuteRKelly movement, the March for Our Lives, and the #MeToo movement. #MuteRKelly is a movement to stop streaming services and radio stations from playing singer R Kelly’s music as a response to the allegations that he is a child predator. The hashtag gained worldwide attention after the airing of the Lifetime documentary, “Surviving R Kelly”, and resulted in Kelly’s music being pulled from many radio stations, taken off of playlists curated by streaming services, and also created enough influence to have venues cancel some of Kelly’s concert performances and appearances. March for Our Lives was an event organized by teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting of 2018 and called for stronger gun laws in the country. Twitter was a way to create buzz about the event, spread information to get people to come to the march in Washington D.C., and allowed for speeches and moments from the march to be instantly shared with people across the world. The #MeToo movement is another movement that uses Twitter as a major form of communication. The movement allows for survivors of sexual assault to share their stories and show the prevalence of this issue in our society while destigmatizing sexual assault and allowing survivors to tell their stories. This movement caused many prominent figures such as Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. to be given consequences for their actions and attempts to give power back to those who have been victims.

Topics followed for the project were BuzzFeed, Refinery29, and WWE. BuzzFeed was chosen because of it’s fun, fresh content. It is a popular news source for young audiences and seems to have created its own path in the world o reporting. Refinery29 is a news platform that caters to women and focus’s on stories that young women would find interest in such as pics on beauty, style, and entertainment. This topic was chosen because of interest in the content that they post, but also because of the message that they stand for. Refinery29 aims to be a source for women to understand and hone their power. WWE was followed because of the disinterest in the topic. WWE was something that would be a challenge to try to follow and understand. 

The major difference between Twitter and standard blogging is the character count. It can be difficult to sum up a large thought into a 280 character limit while not losing the message that is meant to be delivered. Another difference was the constant need to check the platform for new developments in events or stories, and to keep the users engaged. That sort of constant need for content is not evident in standard blogging. Twitter differs from other forms of social media because it is a compact form of written communication and has the power to create real change and movements the way other platforms cannot.

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