From mobile phones to twitter, they are all interconnected. I proliferate myself on twitter, have the application on my phone and receive email updates from their administration. Just as I was with my mobile, I’m obsessed! Although I am not interested in talking about my experience today...

Twitter is a social networking site that allows 140-character expression to update your followers with what you are doing. However twitter is being utilised for reasons other then socially engaging. Celebrities are using the site to proliferate their status, and it is also being used as a communication tool in crisis situations. People are now able to band together and unify in a disaster, and fans are able to follow their favourite celebrities and praise their being (If only I were talented!)

Celebrities are the first to exploit twitter for communication, they use twitter to expand their profile and increase public awareness. They propagate themselves effectively utilizing social media tools, prolonging their celebrity standing. Twitter has become one of the most popular tools; take Kim Kardashians for example, she has 14, 809, 525 followers (twitter), making her one of the most followed user on the site. Psychologist David Giles writes, “The ultimate modern celebrity is the member of the public who becomes famous solely through media involvement” (Bainbridge et al. 2011). This suggests that the success of a celebrity relies upon media attention, however the public sphere withholds power, the audience is skilled in the art of celebrity making and celebrity breaking, theorist Ellis Cashmore insists, the consumers have control (Cashmore 2006). This is where twitter holds its appeal; it allows these celebrities to create a connection with their audience and accumulate followers, even if they withhold no particular skill (cough*, Kim Kardashian, cough*).

Cashmore argues, society spends more time following the lives of celebrities than they do ‘legitimate’ news (Cashmore 2006). Ironically celebrities twitter following is dramatically higher than news following (twitter). Although twitter users, whether they realize it or not, are twittering news stories everyday. Sharing opinions, discussing stories and politics and even updating people on their day, are all examples of people sharing news stories, no matter how insignificant.

Although this does delve further, and in the past it has saved lives. People are now unifying through hash tagging on twitter in a time of crisis, they are also updating events in real-time and are sourced as genuine information. For example: The number of tweets sent out of Tokyo after a massive earthquake in 2011 was over a thousand a minute (Meire 2012):

This is a screen shot of how crisis mapping saved lives in Haiti during the earthquake. Twitter has grown astronomically due to its ability to upload news in real-time and news bureaus are now searching Twitter daily in order to find news stories, BBC recently issued an all points bulletin to its news staff telling them to check social media regularly, “today content is passed on through social media by the audience and that has real credibility” BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks (Horrocks 2010)

So today when I reflect it is not on my own personal experience with twitter but how hegemonic groups are using Twitter to enhance their profiles and reach their audiences. Also how the everyday citizen can now make an impact in the world- through their 140-character voice! Twitter is an evolution, and as long as the world has celebrities and disasters, Twitter will continue to be influential.

References:

Bainbridge, J, Goc, N, & Tynan, L 2011, Media and Journalism: New Approaches to Theory and Practice, 2nd edn,Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.

Cashmore, E. (2006). Celebrity culture. (p. 312). USA: Taylor and Francis E-library. Retrieved from <http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=r0zjIYHbz_IC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=celebrity/ culture ellis cashmore&ots=t45Cpc-PcI&sig=mM8XHuLT_jVl4sBEB6VpSk9sShs>

"Discover Tweets." Twitter. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http:/https://twitter.com/>.

Horrocks, P 2010, “BBC tells news staff to embrace social media”, weblog, viewed 3 December 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/feb/10/bbc-news-social-media>

Meier, P, 2012, Twitter Screenshot,  How crisis mapping saved lives in Haiti, viewed 9 December 2012,  <http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/02/crisis-mapping-haiti/>

The evolution of Twitter, [Online image] viewed 15 July 2012, <http://mashable.com/2012/03/21/history-of-twitter-timeline/>.