Journalism in the Twittersphere

The “selfie” became a pop culture sensation fed by social media, with political leaders, the Pope, and Hollywood stars all joining in the game. Important world leaders have joined the elite and their regular citizens on social media. The most retweeted moments in the U.S. history includes Obama’s “4 more years” tweet, and global pop culture media events like Ellen’s 2014 Oscar selfie. Twitter’s social dimension has proven useful in journalism, because it engages the public in current events. Within minutes of plummeting into the Hudson, a passerby, Jim Hanrahan, on the boat diverted to get the passengers tweeted the story of US Airways flight 1549 for the world to see. Twitter broke one of the biggest miracle stories of 2009, four minutes after it happened and about 15 minutes before the regular media started reporting (Beaumont). Social media platforms like Twitter have undoubtedly changed the course of 21^st Century journalism: power has shifted from top-down to bottom-up structures, and giving journalists opportunities to reach larger audiences and spread information more efficiently. Twitter is transforming 21^st century journalism’s landscape in unpredictable ways.

This is the first picture tweeted of the #miracleonthehudson

With the advent of communication technology and social media it goes unquestioned that citizens can connect on a global scale significantly easier. The ability to reach around the world with a few easy clicks and swipes is great for friends and family to stay in contact while traveling abroad, especially when something terrifying happens. When arrested in Egypt, U.S. journalism student James Buck:

“Pulled out his phone and surreptitiously tweeted the word ‘arrested.’ Over the course of a few hours, he sent updates about his situation via Twitter, which were picked up and passed on to other audiences by Egyptian bloggers. That, in turn, attracted the attention of mainstream journalists, and probably helped secure Buck’s release” (York).

#FreeAJStaff went viral with many journalists posting
their own pictures to Twitter, taking a stand for their
fellow journalists captured in Egypt

This story on Egypt’s crackdown on journalists was one of the first of many that used Twitter as an outlet to let citizens know what was happening to reporters in Egypt. Recently there has been #FreeAJStaff trending on Twitter to speak out for the AlJazeera journalists who have been detained by the Egyptian government since late December 2013. Twitter has not only been an important source for journalists to gather real-time events from around the world; it also has been an outlet for journalists to come together against oppressive governments who are cracking down on their freedom. Twitter is an outlet for connecting journalists, and giving citizens on the ground a way to report.

A collage of pictures from the Arab Spring

Andy Carvin, NPR’s social media strategist, had no idea that he would venture into a new form of journalism that utilized Twitter to its fullest extent during one of the most social media oriented uprisings, the Arab Spring. He has made his career not from reporting at the scene, but synthesizing up to 1,300 tweets, photos and videos from his followers a day, while he is at his desk in D.C. (Jarvis). Coining the term “news DJ” he states in an interview with Jesse Hicks at The Verge; “I don’t see them just as my followers—they help my research, translate, etc. So I guess I’m like an online news anchor who uses Twitter as his newsroom, with Twitter followers helping me do my job better.” Social media has given power to the tweeple; to an extent governments cannot control what their citizens do on social media. Not all governments can be like the Chinese which has built their own social media platforms apart from the world; but in places like Egypt where Egyptians use global social media they proved “resourceful in defying the blackout;” their citizens got back online and contacted the outside world (York).With Twitter users contributing to the media it is hard for government to control, AlJazeera reporter D. Paravaz points out that “the recollection of these revolutions, uprisings or periods of unrest (call them what you will) will not be left to official state records—they have already been chronicled, largely by the people themselves.” Instead of the news conglomerates or government dictating history, journalists and citizens are recording history on their own terms.

Twitter may be beneficial to journalists gathering information, but it is also useful in helping tweeps see more of the journalistic process-citizens are a part of the process, and can see the process unfold. Tweeple are benefiting, according to Carvin because “people become more informed citizens when they understand the process of journalism, not just the products of journalism” he states

Andy Carvin at his desk in D.C.

in his interview with The Verge, “By following me, they get to see the process in action—and hopefully they get something from the experience” (Hicks). Instead of only seeing what made the final cut, being printed or aired, consumers can see tweet by tweet what is happening in the world around them. Journalism utilizing social media platforms, like Twitter, create “accountability and transparency regarding how they [journalists] conduct their work, and sharing user-generated content with their followers” (Lasorsa, Lewis and Holton). However, because stories are breaking on Twitter first, and not being carefully planned for the morning paper or the next news segment; Mike Osborne, the head of a study about Twitter and journalism, fears that “the reporting cycle’s due diligence shrinks overtime—and anecdotally” (Brownstone). Due diligence is important for reporters because they need to have enough sources to back up their story; however with the increase of Twitter, that may be compromised. Twitter has increased transparency of journalism, but it may have a cost in the long run.

Twitter’s use has given power to individual consumers and journalists instead of the conglomerates that own traditional media. Most journalists have Twitter accounts where they can tweet whatever news item they discover; they can “be more open with opinions, more liberal in sharing their gatekeeping role, and more thorough in being transparent about the news process” (Lasorsa, Lewis and Holton). With Twitter, journalists hold more power instead of their traditional gatekeepers-publishers-because they are “given the opportunity to share information rapidly with large audiences through Twitter, journalists have the ability to include or exclude information as they see fit, filtering news and information frequently” (Lasorsa, Lewis and Holton). Twitter has increased any journalistic voices whether in the U.S. or abroad; from the U.S. to Egypt, amateur and professional journalistic voices are being heard in ways that go around authority.

People are going online for more and more of their news.

Twitter can be used from a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Photo by Madeline Hughes

Social media, like Twitter, call for the global community to look upon events happening around the world. With events being recorded by tweeple for a global audience, it is hard to believe that governments will be able to do some of the grossly immoral acts that they have done in the past, because “there will be far more points of reference as a means of confirming or debunking any particular take on events” (Pravaz). It is hard to imagine a world where events were not globally documented with statements, pictures and video right after they happened; “If there had been thousands of tweets, photos, and videos, recording exactly what unfolded—when as many as 40,000 people, by some accounts, were slaughtered at President Hafez al-Assad’s request,” asks Dorothy Pravaz, “would those images have prompted a sustained popular uprising then? Would Syria have gone down a different road?”

Pictures of slavery, the genocide in Turkey, Tienanmen Square,
and inside a concentration camp.

In recent years uprisings have been fueled by social media and have made a greater impact for change through social media. If there had been tweets from the genocide in Turkey (1915), concentration camps, Tiananmen Square (1989), or Syria how would the global community have reacted, and how would the citizens in those countries reacted? Is social media’s influence on journalism also changing the way citizens react to those heinous crimes against humanity?

Twitter is breaking traditional barriers, giving journalists power
to produce the content they see fit

Twitters’ critiques argue that authoritarian dictators utilize social media to contain their citizens. “We like to think that information sets us free, and that access to the internet can lead those oppressed by authoritarians into the light of democracy,” Eveny Morozov claims in an interview about his recent book, “But the internet is not a one-way street, and dictatorial regimes are quite technologically savvy. Countries like Egypt may block the internet at times, but they can take advantage of it, too, using it not just to help track down dissidents but also dispense propaganda” (Bosch). Social media, like Twitter, can also be leveraged against the journalists and activists who are liberated by it because when they “friend one another [it] makes investigations much easier for authorities trying to monitor troublemakers” (Bosch). Between propaganda that is easily spread by the internet, and the internet’s surveillance of users can be seen as a great resource for authoritarian governments.

Ellen may have crashed Twitter with her selfie from the 2014 Oscars, but Twitter remains one of the 21^st century’s most powerful news sources. Twitter users can get up-to-date news from the tweeple who experience it first-hand. Citizens are reporters. Social media users are globally located, allowing information to pour in from everywhere at once. People connect by mere clicks of a mouse or taps on a smartphone. As seen in many recent social movements, protests, and news events, social media, like Twitter allow the world to see many sides of the situation no matter how far away. In the United States alone, journalism has been impacted enormously, and continues to change it with every story broken first on Twitter.