Twitter in Our Life - Essay Example

 Twitter in Our Life It has been offered that Twitter has made a substantial contribution to citizen journalism. In order to refute or support this notion, the dynamics of citizen journalism must be defined effectively. Citizen journalism consists of general citizens of a society being participatory in gathering information and newsworthy knowledge, analysing the meaning and relevancy of this data, and then contributing to the dissemination of such information (Roberts 2008). Citizen journalism transcends the model of mainstream media whereby citizen activists become instrumental in newsgathering strategies and reporting ideologies that often serve as responses to deficiencies or oversight in journalistic reporting objectives and approaches. Twitter, the renowned social media company, currently maintains approximately 500 million subscribers to the service (Keach 2014). Twitter allows these users to send short electronic messages referred to as tweets which can be reviewed (and responded to) by any individual logged into the Twitter website. As a website that ranks as the top 10 most-patronised websites, opportunities for contributions to citizen journalism would appear to be endless. However, whether Twitter contributes meaningfully to citizen journalism is a contentious argument. To potentially support Twitter’s relevancy toward citizen journalism, one can explore the 2012 presidential campaign between incumbent Barack Obama and new candidate Mitt Romney. On October 30, one month prior to the actual election, analysis of Twitter activity regarding both candidates identified that Romney maintained more negative tweets than his opponent, who ultimately won the election for a second term. Of Romney’s total tweet volume, 34 percent were attributed as negative discussion whilst Obama maintained a 33 percent negative tweet volume (TNS 2012). Analysis of content of these negative tweets identified that major socio-political topics such as taxation, immorality, worry and disaster were attributed, in higher volume, toward the loser Romney (TNS). On October 30, one day prior to the aforementioned analysis, mainstream journalism (CNN) had moderated a debate between the two candidates where the moderator inquired of Romney his stance on disaster relief in the wake of a large superstorm that ravaged the U.S. East Coast. Romney on national television indicated that the Federal government should have a limited role in disaster relief to avoid incurring more debt, calling it immoral (Taylor 2012). After these debates, the mainstream Huffington Post maintained a neutral reporting position regarding Romney’s criticisms of immorality and disaster prevailing negative tweets, suggesting (using unbiased journalistic methodology) that Romney also stated he would ensure adequate funding to America’s FEMA organisation to provide such relief (Taylor). The superstorm, named Sandy by American meteorologists, caused billions of dollars in damage just prior to the aforementioned debate and citizen feelings about the disaster were potent regarding this national crisis. Twitter, therefore, provided a forum by which to voice their strong emotional responses to the disaster, gathering genuine information presented in the debate, analysing its relevancy, and then disseminating it for debate or in the pursuit of finding social congruency related to these opinions. In this instance, Twitter was more of a forum for explosive or even irrational discussion about disfavour of Romney’s comments without, necessarily, an impartial examination of all relevant facts. Hence, Twitter’s contributions to legitimate and unbiased citizen journalism is relatively nil in this instance. However, the Glasgow University Media Group (1980) asserts that it is unrealistic to assume that even true mainstream journalism can be objective and impartial. Offers the Media Group, “objectivity...serves only to (complicate) what is in fact the reproduction of the dominant assumptions about our society” (p.115). The concept of citizen journalism has been criticised for abandoning the objectivity norm demanded of competent and realistic journalistic approaches. One critic explored 10 different citizen journalism websites and discovered that their quality and content relevancy were significantly lacking (Grubisich 2005). Many reject these criticisms about objectivity and maintaining non-biased integrity in citizen journalism, only asserting that citizen journalism is a contemporary method of citizen participation in newsgathering, dissemination and discussion as a new media variety. It does not appear that citizen journalism is upheld to the same objectivity norm as mainstream media, hence under the concept of moral relativism, there can be no singular right versus wrong about the approach of citizens in participating in journalistic activity. Using the example of mainstream journalism standards of impartiality versus a lack of guiding principles constituting citizen journalism, then Twitter would, indeed, make a substantial contribution to citizen journalism. Citizens, as a product of learned or inherent behavioural and emotional characteristics, have a free, new media forum by which to become participants in news reporting. Additionally, social sciences recognise that different citizen demographics create very disparate meaning of information which would influence the method by which newsworthy events are reported. If society is to assume that citizen journalism is merely collecting, disseminating and discussing gathered information, without a standard of impartiality, then Twitter’s ability to conduct all of these activities which define citizen journalism is substantial. Having offered two relevant examples, the Obama versus Romney election of 2012 and the objectivity norm (standard) of mainstream journalism versus lack of standards guiding citizen journalism, Twitter’s contribution to citizen journalism is still a contentious issue. Twitter certainly allows for information gathering, discussion and dissemination which are primary components of citizen journalism; its very definition. However, Twitter provides a forum by which to vent, debate or find consensus regarding socio-psychological or socio-political situations which is not necessarily akin to the traditional perspective of authentic and legitimate journalistic integrity. Therefore, this essay concludes that Twitter’s contribution to citizen journalism is not necessarily substantial unless global society is to run under the assumption that citizen journalism is made legitimate when participating citizens in this practice are allowed to let their emotions, personal opinions, and beliefs inject bias into constructed journalistic content. Twitter is certainly a potent forum by which to influence the social environment in a society and would, indeed, be considered a major contributor to citizen journalism under the premise that citizen journalism should not be held to meticulous standards of quality and neutrality. References Glasgow University Media Group. (1980). More Bad News. London: Routledge. Grubisich, T. (2005). Grassroots journalism: actual content vs shining ideal, USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. [online] Available at: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/051006/ (accessed 15 December 2014). Keach, S. (2014). Instagram now has more users than Twitter, Time Inc. [online] Available at: http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/instagram-now-has-more-users-than-twitter (accessed 16 December 2014). Roberts, N.C. (2008). The age of direct citizen participation. London: ME Sharpe. Taylor, A. (2012). Mitt Romney disaster relief position faces scrutiny, Huffington Post. [online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/mitt-romney-sandy_n_2049852.html (accessed 15 December 2014). TNS. (2012). Barack Obama won the battle..on social media too!, Think Magazine. [online] Available at: http://www.tnsglobal.com/other-news/think-newsletter-special-edition-barack-obama-tns (accessed 16 December 2014). Read More