Over the past week, I have spent a good amount of time reading and taking notes on articles about Twitter. I am finding plenty of articles on news sites such as the New York Times and American Journalism Review, but I am having difficulty coming up with many scholarly journal articles. Twitter is a very new form of technology, and I worry that because it is so young, that I will be limited in my research.
I did speak to someone (a graduate student) in one of my classes today, and he mentioned that he just gave a presentation on Twitter the class before. He talked about how he had asked them questions about it, and they did not have any responses. As a student who is researching this new form of media, that can be seen as a positive and a negative from my point of view. While we, communications students, hear about Twitter nonstop, many people have no idea how to define it. And if they do not know what it is and how it can be used, how can they formulate an opinion about it? So despite the vast amount of media attention that Twitter has received, I feel that there are still excellent opportunities to learn and share more about it.
This is an enormous learning opportunity for me as well. I want to read as much as I can about how Twitter is being used by businesses and media professionals. Going into the job market in June, understanding the ins and outs of new media can only help me in my job search.
Something that I am coming across time and time again in my research is how Twitter is changing the way companies approach marketing. But there are other things popping up that I haven’t heard of or thought about until now. According to an article in the New York Times on April 14, Twitter is now being used in the medical industry as well. I think it will be interesting to look at what is being done with Twitter now, what are the possibilities for the future, and what does this tool mean for journalists, business owners and other professionals as well? Also, how will this affect the OU journalism school curriculum?
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Sarah, I really like this Topic. I feel like Twitter is a new timely topic. However, I think it would be interesting if you not only talked about how these business industries are using Twitter, but also talked about how twitter has affected work productivity. Twitter is a great tool for connecting and networking but it seems to be time consuming. I now that Twitter is a new technology, but have you seen any data connecting it to productivity rates?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know the media paints Twitter to be a new phenomenon but it seems very unprofessional, from the set-up of the page to the terminology of calling the 140 word messages “Tweets.”While I do understand the benefit of Twitter over email I don’t understand how safety is enforced. Just like communicating over Facebook and MySpace how do I know the person I am talking to/“tweeting with” is really that individual? Have you found any research about what twitter is doing to keep its clients safe? Not to be pessimistic but in today’s world MySpace and Facebook are full of predators and I would hate for Twitter to become the same way.
All the best,
Don Jason
Dj320306@ohio.edu
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteTo kind of build off of what Don said, this is a great idea for your project, but have you researched how Twitter expects to be profitable at all?
Also, how effective are "Tweets" at really conveying important news? During the Symposium, Dr. Debatin mentioned that this kind of thing was adding to our ADD Culture, something that seems to be one of the major criticisms of Twitter right now.
On the other hand, there is networking (Gary Moneysmith spoke to that) and the personalized aspect of Twitter that allows some people to find it so useful. Maybe compare the perceived pros/cons of Twitter and see if the public's ideas about Twitter are the truth (as you mentioned, there probably won't be very much scholarly research done on the topic yet)?