The researchers carried out a comprehensive review of the existing information to determine some possible weaknesses and gaps in knowledge in order to come up with a strong conclusion. In this case, they realized that most of the past studies were largely cross-sectional and correlational in nature. This problem has made it difficult to make causal inferences. In addition, they noted that none of the previous studies had attempted to examine the impact of Twitters application in an educational setting or student management.
Research questions
The article was written within the guidelines of the conventional format for reporting research studies. The researchers have used both the review of literature and a strong purpose of the study to develop comprehensive, clear but encompassing study questions. Specifically, two research questions were addressed. First, they wanted to address the question what is the effect of encouraging the use of Twitter for purposes relevant to education on student engagement? Secondly, they wanted to answer the question what is the effect of encouraging the use of Twitter for the purposes relevant to education on students grades per semester? Therefore, it is evident that the researchers wanted to address two variables- the impact of Twitter on engagement and the impact of Twitter on grades .
Variables
A dependent variable is the measurable aspect used to show the effect of an action. On the other hand, an independent variable is the value that represents the input or cause of an action that produces a measurable effect on the aspect or phenomenon under study.
Therefore, in this case, the researchers independent variable was the use of twitter among students in college. It was used to produce some effect on the phenomenon. On the other hand, the researchers dependent variables were two- the impact on student engagement and the impact on student semester grades . The two aspects were values that depend on another action (encouragement of Twitter use), but they cannot be directly manipulated by the researchers.
Study methods
The study design used indicates that a quantitative method was preferred. It involved statistical analysis of the questions prompted to students. Two groups of students were used- a control group and a test group . In addition, each student was assigned to one of the seven different sections of a one-credit first-year course in health professional majors at a certain university in the US.
Participants
In total, the researchers used 132 students and assigned each student into one of the seven sections identified in the study. However, only 125 students out of the original number took the pre-test survey. The participation rate was 95%. A number of aspects were considered, including age (17 to 20 years), parenthood, prior exposure to social networking, ethnicity and gender. Specific questions were prompted in terms of survey questions. They were asked to discuss these questions using social networking via Twitter. Since the method wanted to examine the use of Twitter for education relevant purposes, a number of specific aspects were measured. These include book discussion, class reminders, academic and personal support, campus event reminders, class discussions and organized study groups. NSSE instrument was used to measure the outcomes.
Statistical tests
As mentioned above, the study was a quantitative research that heavily relied on statistical data to address the study questions. As such, statistical analysis was imperative to addressing the study questions. In this case, the researchers used NSSE instrument to measure the outcomes. In addition, it has psychometric properties it was a Likert-like scale in nature and was meant to measure the strength of the outcomes in figures and numbers. ANOVA was used to measure variance in engagement and grades.
Results
Using ANOVA results, the researchers found that both students and members of the faculty were highly engaged in the process of learning using Twitter. They found that the process of learning transcended class work in traditional settings. The study found that Twitter is an important tool in education because it increases the leaners ability to engage. In addition, it enhances the tutors ability to take active and participatory roles.
Value, strengths and limitations of the research
Noteworthy, the topic of study as well as the results are relatively rare in literature. As such, the value of the study is commendable because it yields information that is not only rare, but also fills the identified gap as well as providing evidence that Twitter can be used in improving class work rather than affecting student morals. In addition, the researchs strength is clear because the study used statistical analysis to measure the outcomes in an empirical setting.
Limitations
However, the study was prone to errors and biases because the student community at a single faculty and university is too small to represent the entire student population in the US. In addition, statistics are likely to cause errors and biases.
Application
I find the study applicable in providing additional information to the large topic of study the positive impact of social media on students as opposed to the traditional thought that students morals, behavior and outcomes are degraded by social media .
Reference
Junco, R., Heibergert, G., & Loken, E. (2010). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of computer assisted learning, 10(2), 1365-2729. Web.
The case study provides a background discussion about Twitter, social networking sites. Twitter allows users to tweet a 140-character text to their followers. The company was established in 2006 as a stand-alone company by the Odeo Podcasting Company. The executives of Odeo saw Twitter as an alternative source of new revenues (Laudon and Laudon, 34).
The number of individual tweets is unknown. However, experts estimated that Twitter recorded 200,000 tweets per hour in 2009 during the much-publicized Iranian rebellion. In addition, experts observe that 10% of tweeter users generate 80% of the tweets on Twitter. On top of these, the Twitter churn rate is estimated to be 60%. This implies that only 40% of Twitter users use it for more than one month.
Twitter is used to connect people through social tweets. In addition, it is used as a celebrity platform and a free public relations tool. Just like the other giant social networks, these services are free of charge. Then, how does Twitter generate its revenues? The answer to this question is unknown. The case study identifies three assets Twitter can use to generate its revenues. These assets include eyeballs per day, tweets database, and news distribution platform.
The case study goes ahead to discuss how these assets can be monetized. First, it suggests that Twitter should charge for video and music downloads. This will require a user to pay subscription fees for such services. However, this option is not tenable because Twitter users are currently used to free services. Secondly, Twitter can sell display or text ads on individual tweets or charge advertisers for ad messages on individual tweets. Finally, Twitter can consider charging companies to use its big data database.
Twitters business model
The business model of Twitter can be characterized in several ways. First, the model allows users of its services to express themselves by creating content and sharing it with other users. Second, Twitter is a celebrity platform as well as a public relations tool. However, according to the case study, Twitter has not been able to generate revenue from these services.
Revenue models that can work
The advertising revenue model and the subscription revenue model would work for the Twitter Company. Through the advertising revenue model, Twitter can employ strategies to promote the use of its services to generate revenue. Advertising is a significant source of revenue, and hence should be adopted by Twitter. Through the subscription revenue model, Twitter will be assured of having constant and predictable subscribers for its service (Brynjolfsson and Kahin, 57).
Important assets
Twitter assets include eyeballs per day, tweet database, and news distribution platform. These assets can be monetized through subscription, ads charges, and data mining fees. A tweet can allow users to use it as a search engine (Shaw, 87). Second, it can promote tweeting by allowing users to get the latest news, views, or any current issue at a fee.
Impact of high churn rate on the potential advertising revenues of Twitter
The Twitter churn rate stands at 60% in a month. In most cases, people get bored when tweeting with friends. The churn rate is likely to have negative consequences on Twitters potential source of advertising revenues. This is because social media sites are poor advertising platforms. In addition, social sites are unreliable.
Works Cited
Brynjolfsson, Erik, and Brian Kahin. Understanding the digital economy: data, tools and research. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 2002. Print.
Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane P. Laudon. Essentials of management information systems. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
Shaw, Michael. E-commerce and the Digital Economy. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2006. Print.
This report considers some aspects of organizational behavior, including its general aspects as well as diversity, job satisfaction, and employees emotions. Twitter is a company that is used as an example of a business with developed attitude monitoring and engagement encouraging practices. The analysis shows that Twitters results on their path to increasing diversity are not as transparent as one may think. The company pays significant attention to increasing job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The recommendation for Twitter is to update its diversity standards and allow its employees to move up the career ladder. The future analysis of the company can also review its process of dealing with conflict situations.
Introduction
Organizational behavior (OB) can be viewed as a foundation of any business success and resilience. According to Newstrom and Davis (2007), it is also the study and application of knowledge about how people as individuals or as groups act within organizations (p. 5). Therefore, OB can be used as a tool which management teams understand or justify the mature of employees and according to which they make appropriate decisions to lead the organization. The goals of OB are to describe how people act under different conditions and understand why people behave in certain ways. Managers could become frustrated with their employees if they did not understand the reasons behind their workers actions.
Employers who have examined their companys OB have the capacity to predict which employees might be dedicated and productive or which ones might be unproductive or prone to conflicts, thus allowing them to take preventive action. The final goal of OB is to control and develop human-based activities at work. Managers have a responsibility to achieve high-performance outcomes, and they are interested in being able to make an impact on employee behavior, productivity, skill development, and team effort (Newstrom & Davis, 2007). Higher ranks of employees need to be able to improve results through the actions they and their workers take, and OB is one of the ways to aid them in this pursuit.
OB is a generalized term that includes various aspects, such as employees job satisfaction, diversity, and company culture. Currently, many companies undergo changes to adhere to the ever-evolving business sphere. Nonetheless, some firms fail to represent their employees or deliver fair treatment to all their members. The issue of diversity remains especially high for technology developers that have a history of racial and gender discrepancy in their staff (Hervey, 2019). The company that will be reviewed in relation to its OB and diversity issues is Twitter. This research paper will consider the business attitudes, employees job satisfaction, representation of minorities, and overall emotional background of the members.
Background
Twitter is a company that provides a platform for social networking. It was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in California in 2006 ( About Twitter, 2019). Currently, Twitter can be considered one of the most popular social media sites and applications. However, the staff numbers remain relatively low, with approximately 3,300 people working for the company from different parts of the world ( About Twitter, 2019).
The OB of Twitter is not as transparent as one would hope. While the platform sees millions of active users every day, the employees of Twitter do not share their everyday routine often, which leaves the analysis of the firms policies to available data and reports. For instance, it is known that in 2016 and 2017, Twitter faced some accusations due to its failure to diversify (Wagner & Molla, 2018). Moreover, newer descriptions of the companys activities are not available, the latest reports on Twitters culture coming from 2012 (Kruse, 2012). These pieces of information may be used to create a picture of how Twitter attempts to build its OB.
Analysis
The Nature of Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is a recent area of study that is developing into a unique field. It has progressed in the second half of the twentieth century. Its contemporary nature may be addressed as under a separate field of study. Significant research and analysis have been done in this sphere, but it is still not accepted as a separate discipline. There is no framework of basic concepts that may guide its evolution as a science.
As an outcome, it can be called a field of study rather than discipline. The aim of OB is to find solutions to organizations problems related to the aspect of human behavior. Thus, applied researches are concentrated in place of theoretical researches. Moreover, OB can be considered an art as well since its investigations require a creative outlook on the present and future of organizational success.
At Twitter, the overall atmosphere of employees seems to be positive. Modern companies that work with technology, especially social media, are focused on representing their workplace setting as fun, engaging, and creative, Twitter is not an exception the businesss About page is not centered on facts or the history of the organization but on its place in the delivery of the latest news. Furthermore, it prides itself as a foundation for building communication between people as well as businesses.
According to Varyani (2016), [OB] is based on the concept that need and motivation of the people should be given priority & if people are given proper environment & they are creative, independent and capable of achieving organizational objectives (para. 5). However, one may see that any of Twitters main website pages do not focus on the companys members, including their working conditions, salaries, and other information. Some of this data can be found on the business blog where it releases its efforts and achievements in improving the companys culture.
Diversity in Organizations
Diversity as a concept is gaining more and more attention among employees and employers alike. It can be defined by the ways in which people in an organization are different from and similar to one another (Gonzales & Zamanian, 2015, p. 595).
The characteristics of a diverse staff can be very broad, but the primary differences are based on workers gender, race or ethnicity, and age. Some narrow classifications such as peoples religion, education, sexual orientation, culture, values, immigrant status, and others are also gaining recognition as the political and economic situations evolve. The field of diversity is interested in the outcomes and management of individual differences in organizational settings (Gonzales & Zamanian, 2015, p. 595). This aspect of OB is especially relevant in countries where the demographic makeup is not unified.
It should be noted that the issue of low diversity is not limited to the number of people hired. The investigation is also concerned with the quality of the environment, its readiness to accommodate people from different backgrounds. Diversity is also the process of recognizing, understanding and accepting individual differences irrespective of their race, gender, age, class, ethnicity, physical ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice and so on (Dike, 2013, p. 5).
Both primary (age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity) and secondary (income, religion, education) characteristics of people are important to address and acknowledge. Some of these qualities cannot be noticed without engaging with the people, and companies should work to recognize the different sides of their employees to provide them with a comfortable working environment.
The worlds movement towards globalization further complicates the issue of diversity. It has triggered more interaction amongst people from different cultures and backgrounds that before, thus urging companies to update their policies (Dike, 2013, p. 5). Nonetheless, businesses should not perceive the concept of diversity as a threat to their success in many cases, globalization is a solution to a companys problems. In the case of Twitter, diversity is a positive force that helps the platform expand and capture new international markets. Cultural differences are vital in the creation of services in organizations that aim to serve people from all around the globe, and Twitters increased diversity would benefit its goals.
At the present moment, Twitter is working to redistribute its positions to people with different backgrounds. For example, the company stated that it is centered on two primary areas increasing the number of women and Black and Latinx people in the workforce (Twitter, Inc., 2019). In the latest report, the firm demonstrated that its staff is changing continuously, adding people from different countries to its roster. However, some publications have challenged the validity of the presented numbers and demonstrated that the share of non-white workers did not grow significantly and possibly even decreased in the latest year.
According to Wagner and Molla (2018), in comparison to 2017, in 2018, more people working at Twitter decided not to disclose their ethnicity. In turn, the company attributed this group of people to minorities, thus increasing the overall count of non-white employees. This action may be seen as alarming when analyzing the firms efforts to improve its diversity. Accounting for the fact that Twitter was pressured into reconsidering its practices in 2017, this news is especially concerning (Wagner & Molla, 2018). It is vital to recognize that Twitter still has diversity-related issues.
Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
Another aspect of OB is job satisfaction which can be investigated from different perspectives as well. It often depends on workers and managers attitudes towards each other and personal duties. Attitudes reveal peoples feelings about a certain subject, they act as evaluative statementseither favorable or unfavorableabout objects, people, or events (Robbins & Judge, 2014, p. 35). Therefore, a simple statement such as, I like my job, can be interpreted as an attitude.
The discussed concept depends on three dimensions cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The first one, cognitive, deals with the way employees evaluate activities and changes in the workplace. Workers may grow unsatisfied with the fact that they do not receive regular promotions or that their manager is acting unfairly for particular reasons. At this stage, their attitude is based on their way of thinking about the environment around them.
The next step is effective in which people express a certain feeling toward the situation. If a person simply states that they dislike their coworker or supervisor, their attitude is effective. Finally, if workers are acting to change their job or talking to others about their problems, they are engaging in a behavioral attitude. As presented in Figure 1 three discussed dimensions of attitude are closely related since one may derive from or depend on another.
Figure 1. Cognition, affect, and behavior in work-related attitude (Robbins & Judge, 2014, p. 36).
At work, the behavioral component of attitudes is the most significant because it shows the ways in which people choose to act and collaborate with other employees. If the organizational culture is not transparent, and all workers think that their supervisors are keeping information from them, their attitude may lead to a lack of teamwork or low efficiency. Here, the research is focused on three concepts, job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment (Robbins & Judge, 2014, p. 36).
All of these aspects depend on the employees attitude and are based on how each business treats its members. Job satisfaction is a set of positive feelings linked to ones work, including pay, working hours, environment, team, and other factors. Job involvement is the interest that a person may have in duties and responsibilities. Finally, organizational commitment is a positive feeling towards the company and its structure as well as a desire to work with this business.
In the case of Twitter, the company takes many actions to keep its employees engaged and committed. Although the information available to the public is not recent, it is possible to assume that such practices remain in use for years since the companys staff and the number of offices continues to expand. According to Kruse (2012), Twitter uses four primary ways to motivate employees. The first one is CEO-led management sessions during which the current CEO interacts with the companys managers and utilizes personal stories, practices, and role-playing to build strong relationships and create an informal company culture.
This practice may positively affect the leadership experiences of Twitter managers and make the position more rewarding than it would be otherwise. It is possible that these meetings also contribute to organizational commitment since they create a framework of open communication and easy-to-reach upper management.
The second discussed practice is a job satisfaction survey that Twitter employees complete two times each year. Kruse (2012) states that other companies conduct such data collection much rarer, while Twitter provides its workers with a short and concise questionnaire that does not take up a significant portion of their day. This survey has some open-ended questions that allow workers to share their thoughts and introduce new ideas for improvement.
It is unclear to what extent this input is considered, so the level of employee participation remains obscure. Furthermore, the company keeps a monthly employee dashboard that accounts for any changes in the pool, including attrition levels and the impact of learning programs. The initiative involving regular surveys is a measure that can be beneficial to keeping employees satisfied. One should note that open-ended questions are an interesting approach to democratizing the working space and providing employees with the ability to participate.
Third, Twitter simplifies its requirements for employees and condenses them into five main characteristics. They are Communication, Development, Direction, Change and Collaboration (Kruse, 2012, para. 6). Each of these core skills is vital for Twitter, and the company makes sure to pay attention to improving each of them in its workers. As a result, the staff is often engaged in seminars and exchange programs that challenge them and provide them with new competencies and experiences. The commitment to such a simple structure is transparent enough to provide workers and managers with an easy system of OB.
Finally, similar to the satisfaction survey, Twitter gives its employees an opportunity to provide feedback. This is accomplished through learning labs and performance reviews during which workers are encouraged to share whatever they feel is pertinent to what is happening in the company (Kruse, 2012). The ability for the staff to voice their concerns is vital for a business to maintain a connection with individual employees and the working force as a whole.
Managers are often afraid of open and fearless feedback which may contribute to them limiting employees outreach (Robbins & Judge, 2014). Twitter appears to be moving in the opposite direction, giving its staff the tools to improve the companys systems. It also provides employees with an opportunity to express their feelings both positive and negative towards the business, relieving stress and reducing the impact of negative events.
Findings, Suggestions, and Recommendations
According to the analysis presented above, one may see that Twitters OB has its strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, the company employs a robust system of monitoring peoples job satisfaction levels. On the other hand, its diversity efforts are less satisfactory than desired. It is clear that the firm pays significant attention to its workers organizational commitment. Moreover, while it may seem that Twitters efforts about increasing diversity are not effective, the business continues to work on various programs for its improvement. Recently, two of the Twitter executives commented on the organizations latest efforts and stated that diversity is not a problem that is limited to HR management (Hervey, 2019).
They admitted that diversity encouragement is not only a tool to prevent or lower discrimination in the job market. It can also be used for innovation because people from different backgrounds are able to offer unique experiences. The abundance of various cultures is beneficial for companies who depend on continuous innovation (Gelfand, Aycan, Erez, & Leung, 2017). Indeed, a team with diverse members can exchange knowledge that would otherwise remain unseen by people with similar abilities.
One of the recommendations that can be given to Twitter deal with changing its approach to diversity. While its executives already comment on the restructuring of this process to target innovation, one may also suggest the company stray away from accepting diversity-valuing behavior without acknowledging a power imbalance that often follows ineffective diversity-encouraging initiatives.
As Hekman, Johnson, Foo, and Yang (2017) find, diversity-valuing behavior can contribute to minorities (including women and people of color) having lower performance ratings. This problem persists in organizations that limit minorities presence in upper and middle management. If Twitter is committed to creating a diverse community of workers, its structure has to consider the imbalance of executive and managerial influence and change its recruitment policies.
Conclusions and Future Work
Organizational behavior is a vital tool in addressing companies interaction with employees. It is concerned with a variety of issues, and its analysis allows one to see how workers, managers, and businesses act towards each other. In the case of Twitter, one may see a company that is trying to implement changes but is still struggling to overcome the problems that are common in the field of technology and development.
The business pays significant attention to increasing its workers job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, it fails to develop policies that would adequately enhance the level of diversity in the different ranks of the staff. The main recommendation for Twitter is to continue working on diversification, introducing standards that protect minorities and allow them to explore their capabilities in higher positions. For future work, one may consider conflict management in the company and consider Twitters power structures.
Gelfand, M. J., Aycan, Z., Erez, M., & Leung, K. (2017). Cross-cultural industrial organizational psychology and organizational behavior: A hundred-year journey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 514-529.
Gonzales, J. A., & Zamanian, A. (2015). Diversity in organizations. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (2nd ed., Vol. 6, pp. 595-600). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Hekman, D. R., Johnson, S. K., Foo, M. D., & Yang, W. (2017). Does diversity-valuing behavior result in diminished performance ratings for non-white and female leaders? Academy of Management Journal, 60(2), 771-797.
A Recent Event That Showcases a Change at a Larger Level
The selected change event refers to Elon Musks acquisition of Twitter, Inc. and the cultural shifts that followed it. In April 2022, the renowned entrepreneur initiated the deal with the social media giant by offering $44 bln for the company (Jia & Xu, 2022). The deal was completed in October, making Musk replace Jack Dorsey as the companys CEO and resulting in a series of controversial decisions to reset Twitters culture.
Analysis of the Event
The Changes Focus and Intended Results
The change effort initiated by Musk was focused on forcing rather than promoting a cultural shift to make the workforce more self-demanding and obedient. In his e-mail to the employees, Musk clearly stated his expectations regarding Twitter 2.0, requiring employees across various hierarchical levels to commit to the hardcore culture or leave their jobs (Ding, 2022, para. 1). For the intended results, Musk hoped to make the culture less employee-centered and emphasize excellent performance and dedication to improving Twitter. This was evident in his attempt to make the workforce prepared for working long hours at high intensity (Ding, 2022, para. 2). He anticipated creating an organizational culture of obedience and hard work and demonstrated the producer archetype in terms of leadership signatures by stating his commitment to tangible results and development rather than the teams interests.
Factors Leading to the Change and Making It Worth Doing
Musks successful acquisition of the key decision-makers status has led to the change, and his detailed perspectives of Twitters tech-related drawbacks as a platform have made it worth doing from his perspective. Musk became the CEO and removed the previous board of directors, thus eliminating competition from the other internal sources of power, which has made drastic changes possible (Ding, 2022). Musks understanding of the changes importance revolves around Twitters ability to revolutionize content evaluation processes to allow free speech, increase the platforms transparency, and improve bot detection/banning (Ding, 2022; Milmo, 2022). Being effort-intensive, all these plans require the Twitter teams ultimate dedication to meeting stricter performance standards and total agreement with Musks vision.
Political/Strategic/Cultural Challenges during Change Efforts
Musks rather disorganized change process could have promoted various issues, many of which can still emerge in the nearest future. Political challenges that might have occurred during the change process include more strained India-U.S. relationships resulting from Musks decision to fire over 80% of Twitter employees in India (Bond, 2022). Dedication to getting rid of staff members from a different culture might reveal the propinquity effect and Musks determination to create stable networks based on their members proximity. This very act could have resulted in cultural challenges, including the remaining Indian workforces growing negative attitudes to their U.S.-based counterparts for doing nothing to challenge Musks chaotic staff policy decisions. In terms of strategic issues, removing opportunities for remote work and mass firings could have undermined Twitters human resource strategy by lowering the subjective attractiveness of joining the team, thus leaving various crucial positions unfilled.
How the Process Has Gone
Regarding how the process has gone so far, Musk has already instrumentalized his formal status to initiate mass firings, thus eliminating open resistance to a new culture. Competence and likeability are leaders personal assets in promoting their vision, but Musk has demonstrated neither of them in his chief decisions. Eliminating the opportunity to work from home and the plan to leave up to 50% of the employees jobless have caused intense negative reactions from the workforce and the global business community (Ding, 2022). Change efforts have sought to remove barriers to Twitters success, as understood by Musk, such as the previous leaderships excessive employee-centeredness and commitment to people rather than results.
Decisions that Have Worked Better/Worse
The initiative that has worked better in terms of forcing Musks vision of Twitters culture refers to structural changes to suppress the plurality of opinion and achieve managerial hegemony. Musk dissolved the social media giants board, firing the leading financial, legal, and operational decision-makers and bringing his like-minded attorney and fellow tech investors to the team (Ding, 2022; Milmo, 2022). Despite undermining the balance between leadership and management by removing the experts with sound knowledge of Twitters business environments, Musk has successfully eliminated the potential sources of intraorganizational resistance. Since Twitters long-standing decision-makers elicit more trust and are seen as more competent and likable compared to the new CEO, Parag Agrawal and other fired leaders could have inspired internal opposition to Musks culture-changing policies.
Musks initiatives related to policy and non-leadership staff have worked much worse due to violating organizational change logic and spreading fear among the workforce. Change theories, including Kotters eight steps, advocate for the graduality of change, which is absent in Musks case. As opposed to Kotters perspective, in which the vision is communicated thoroughly and taught by example from the guiding coalition, Musks approach is chaotic and creates uncertainty for the workforce (Ding, 2022; Milmo, 2022). Instead of establishing a coalition with much experience in operating social media platforms, Musk has invited over fifty coding specialists from Tesla, which is a totally different market, to join the team (Ding, 2022). Along with the VUCA world approach, addressing the volatile speed of change forces requires a clear vision (Antonacopoulou, 2018). The speed with which Musk has initiated changes to work-from-home policies and demanded total agreement with the new culture reveals his ignorance of the graduality concept. Over 3,000 Twitter employees have changed their LinkedIn status to open to work (Ding, 2022, para. 15). Such reactions reveal a climate of uncertainty and fear, which is not conducive to success in resetting culture.
Twitter is a system that allows users to send text notes up to 280 characters using a web interface, SMS, instant messaging, or third-party client programs. Messages created on a social network are called tweets. Twitter was initially conceived as a platform for exchanging short messages of up to 140 characters between Odeo software developers. According to Dorseys idea, such messages should be immediately displayed on the pages of users who are subscribed to the account of the messages author (Haffner, 2020). This social network has been actively developing since 2006, and at the moment, there is a problem that Twitter uses personal data for commercial purposes.
Case
The company itself admitted to such activities just a couple of years ago. As a result of unintentional actions, personal information was used for marketing purposes and for displaying contextual advertising to users (Rashid & Zaaba, 2020). Although the company has hidden the total number of victims, Twitter has highlighted the source of the problem: manual targeting by brands has failed (Koksal, 2018). Marketing lists were compiled based on phone numbers and email addresses that users used for double authentication. Twitter has previously violated privacy by improperly storing passwords in clear text (Koksal, 2018). Although Twitter consistently admits to its own mistakes, its frequency does not justify this fact.
Problem
The main problem lies in the RealTime Bidding technology. This technology is opaque while at the same time dealing with a vast amount of personal data. RTB is the target of complaints throughout Europe and America, because of which it has repeatedly proved its unreliability (Privacy International, 2019). The secrecy of targeted ads and the constant failure of leaks make their use illegal in many ways.
Privacy concerns and Behavior in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States
Solution
It is needed to make technologies and their explanation more open. Firstly, now the button why do you see this ad is not apparent hidden. Secondly, users must choose the degree of dissemination of information about themselves, including gender, age, and much more. Twitter is primarily a social network, not an advertising platform where users want to chat and read news rather than search for promotional items based on their preferences.
References
Privacy International. (2019). Twitter may have used your personal data for ads without your permission. Time to fix AdTech! Web.
Koksal, I. (2018). Twitter Admits To Exploiting Users Personal Data , Forbes. Web.
Haffner, M. (2020). Twitter. In Warf, B. (eds.) Geographies of the Internet. New York: Routledge, pp. 277-291.
Rashid, A. F. A., & Zaaba, Z. F. (2020) Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: The Privacy Challenges , 2020 International Conference on Promising Electronic Technologies (ICPET), Paris, France, Web.
Social network has allowed an individual to have access to the world and interactions can be made easier through chatting and messaging. There are many social networks in the world today but in this particular context we are majoring on twitter and how it has helped to create interactive lessons in the classroom ( The Twitter Experiment 1). The essays in the New York Times and the twitter experiment have a similar theme i.e. how social network can enhance interaction in a class setup (Freeman 35-37).
One similarity between the essay and the YouTube link is the use of the same social network, twitter (Scott 45-52). It is a social network that allows users to blog posts with a limit of 140 characters. To log in to twitter, one needs an email address and they acquire a user name for interaction. You can have as many followers as you want. In relation to education, students are able to make their posts and their views are seen by the whole class ( The Twitter Experiment 1).
Justin Lansink illustrated in the essay has the fear of speaking out in class while David Petty, a freshman in the study of political science in the University of Texas Dallas says that one does not have to worry about speaking to a multitude of people in the class (Martin 2010). This shows that the fear to make your point across in class can be countered by the availability of social network. Not every individual has the capacity to speak up because of fear of being put down or saying the wrong thing.
Posting on the screen builds up the confidence of students to be interactive (Wellman 1-12). In terms of analysis, this similarity is significant in terms of helping to understand the necessity of social networks in the current society. Apart from helping to provide and spread information quickly, social networks aid in promotion of healthy relationships in the society thereby enhancing harmony amongst people.
In both materials, teachers are using twitter in schools to set up backchannels in their classrooms. The teachers computer is connected to a projector and reflected on the white screen. This allows the questions, posts, answers and commentary to be visible by everyone in the class. This is made possible through a live digital streaming and the students response is relative to the class discussion (Hansen 75).
In the video clip, David Schallert a History student in the University of Texas Dallas voices out that in a classroom of fifty students it is hard to get your opinion out. Through the help of twitter, an additional number of student can get there comments piped up and be heard like anyone else ( The Twitter Experiment 1). The same point can be seen in the magazine whereby Nicholas Provenzano, an English teacher at Grosse Pointe South High School which is outside Detroit, illustrates that out of thirty students; only twelve can engage in a conversation and through backchannels an additional of eight are able to pipe up. He notes it is an improvement (Hansel 18-20).
Purdue University in Indiana developed their back channel system where students post their questions and answers that can be read on their laptops and smartphones and projected on a large screen (Brown 10). The same is seen in the University of Texas Dallas where student are sitting with their laptops while there is a large screen in front of them where their comments are displayed ( The Twitter Experiment 1).
In this case, it can be noted that both materials indicate the importance of technology to the society in terms promotion of easy learning techniques. It is clear that both producers of the two materials were mainly suggesting to their audience the technology has helped the current society in terms of it has eliminated complex procedures. The audience, in both cases, can deduce that the use of technology has improved the lifestyle of mean in a great way.
Professor Chakravarty says that students are intimidated and could not speak up, while in the video, Dr. Monica Rankin says that he could not be able to pull out a discussion from students but now thanks to twitter, interactions is successful (Shishkin 16-19). The teacher-student relationship is made trust worthy by the response the teacher gets from the students. This gives the teacher moral to pass knowledge.
Kate weber mentioned in the magazine essay, convinces that students are not destructive rather they are quick to know things. Even Dr. Monica Rankin says that she thought it would be disastrous and messy to introduce this system but the response was encouraging. In both resources, it can be proved that social network in classrooms can work and enable effective learning environment ( The Twitter Experiment 1).
By the comments from the elementary and University students there is a positive response towards this system (Freeman 54-60). In terms of analysis, this example shows the importance of technology in terms of enhancing education and other social activities that take place in life. It is clearly evident that most of the use of technology has created major changes in terms of creating a platform whereby individuals can easily communicate and resolve conflicts. These pieces of literary work demonstrate that technology can be useful in terms of improving education and processes of learning.
In conclusion, the innovation and introduction of devices has brought change in education. There are many who would think that by adding devices like laptops and smartphone in their classes, students will be more destructed. All people need is for their opinions to be heard and social networks like twitter have enabled students to get involved in classroom activities. Social networks act as ice breakers and this encourages interaction between them (Moody 103127).
They are able to correct each other and learn what each and every one of them has to put across. People who are introverts no longer have to fear being called out to speak in public. It is in such platforms that one may have the right answer but because of fear they would rather keep it for themselves. Twitter has allowed everybodys views to be displayed. It is also an advantage for teachers who have many students in class. It is impossible to get every bodies opinion in a crowd of one hundred people but twitter has a made it easy by enabling teachers to get as many response as possible in a short moment (McGrath and Krackhardt 223-242).
Works Cited
Brown, Amanda. The tricky business of business tweeting. The Irish Times. 2011: 10. Print.
Freeman, Linton. The Development of Social Network Analysis. Vancouver: Empirical Press, 2006. Print.
Hansel, Saul. Advertisers Are Watching Your Every Tweet. The New York Times. 2009: 18-20. Print.
Hansen, William and Eric Reese. Network Genie User Manual. Greensboro, NC: Tanglewood Research, 2009. Print.
Martin John Levi. Social Structures. USA: Princeton University Press, 2010.
McGrath, Blythe and Krackhardt. The effect of spatial arrangement on judgements and errors in interpreting graphs . Social Networks 19 (1997): 223-242.
Moody, James and Douglas White. Structural Cohesion and Embeddedness: A Hierarchical Concept of Social Groups. New York: American Sociological Review. 2003. Print.
Scott, John. Social Network Analysis. London: Sage, 1991. Print.
Shishkin, Philip. Genes and the Friends You Make. Wall Street Journal. 2009: 16-19. Print.
The Twitter Experiment. Twitter in the Classroom. Web.
Wellman, Barry and Berkowitz. Social Structures: A Network Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Print.
Twitter was initially launched by Evan Williams and his colleagues as an online service for communication with friends and family. However, it has gradually evolved, and how Twitter can be used for conveying a large number of different messages whether personal, public, or commercial ones. While discussing Twitters benefits in TED video, Evan Williams mentioned that the growth of the online service was stimulated by the users who frequently offered different methods of Twitters use (Williams). And marketing managers can apply Twitter as a tool for communication with potential customers at various stages of product development or testing processes. By listening to Twitter users, it is possible to understand customer preferences, interests, and needs and use this understanding to improve product and service quality.
Implementation of Twitter can be efficient in many phases of new product creation, starting from marketing strategy development and ending with the introduction of the product to the market. The initial stage of marketing strategy design is the environmental analysis which helps to evaluate financial risks, organizational strengths and weaknesses, brands competitive position, and potential customers expectations and preferences (Kotler et al. 70). To create appropriate product values, the organization should be sensitive towards the changes in the cultural environment within the market and consider even the smallest shifts in customer preferences, tendencies, and competitors product representations.
At this stage, Summize, the specially designed search engine for Twitter, can help to evaluate customer interests and new-product expectations through the analysis of users comments on qualitatively proximate products and brands launched by the competitors. Although it can be misleading to take into account the interests of various customer groups and subjective individual opinions, the analysis of Twitter messages may help to understand the prevalent tendencies and trends, and their consideration may assist in fostering product success by avoiding the potential risks.
Prior to launching a new product, Twitter may help to test different concepts and ideas before the actual development of physical product versions. While taking into account potential consumers feedbacks on initial marketing ideas, a company can obtain an opportunity to develop products that would become most demanded. The indirect involvement of customers into the process of product development and customer-driven marketing strategies designed according to customer interests aim to improve the quality of service and increase product awareness (Kotler et al. 331). Moreover, constant communication with potential consumers may contribute to customer satisfaction through the integration of extra social values into brands or products image (Kotler et al. 343).
Twitter can be effectively implemented as an additional instrument for the promotion of items at various stages of the product life cycle. It can facilitate the products transition from the introduction stage to growth and maturity stages. Twitter can be used as a tool for building product awareness and customer attraction. And it is possible to say that a customer-driven marketing strategy mediated through online social service websites, such as Twitter, can support the attainment of sustainable growth, stable competitiveness, and profitability.
Works Cited
Kotler, Philip, Gary Armstrong, Valerie Trifts, and Peggy H. Cunningham. Principles Of Marketing, 9th Canadian Edition, Toronto: Pearson, 2013. Print.
This essay aims to track the developments in media gatekeeping through the emergence of the digital era and the boom in adoption of social media sites for news gathering, distribution and consumption. It begins with a history of the gatekeeping theory and how it has developed before going on to determine who, in the social media era, are the gatekeepers? It looks at how traditional media outlets like newspapers have adapted and how Twitter have encroached and given the public the platform to become journalists, provide feedback and become gatekeepers themselves.
The media gatekeeper
The practice of gatekeeping is, put simply, the method of diluting billions of available messages into a more digestible amount. (Shoemaker, 1991, p 1). The idea of a gatekeeper was not coined with communications in mind. The German-born American social psychologist Kurt Lewin is widely recognized with first devising the theory in 1947. He used it to determine that not everyone in the family was equal in determining what meal would be consumed at home and that the best way to implement social change was to focus on influencing the power brokers in the model. In this case the wife/mother (Lewin, 1947, p. 146).
The journalism professor David White is widely credited with the first employment of Lewin’s gatekeeper theory in the world of media and communications. However, discussion about the role of a filterer of messages can be traced far earlier. In his 1922 book, ‘The Immigrant Press And Its Control, Robert Ezra Park said: “There is an enormous amount of news “killed” every day (Park, 1922, p. 328). This was in relation to editors of immigrant newspapers in the United States and the decisions they make to fill newspapers.
While the term gate keeping may not have entered the media vernacular until the works of Lewin and White, the process of the role of filtering selections for communication, it is argued, has been around since the start of communication. For example, the size of a newspaper has routinely been printed with cost implications in mind, advertisers traditionally determined how many pages editors would have to fill and therefore how much space there was for news (Shoemaker and Reese 2014, p. 181). That space could never accommodate all the items of news each day, as Park said, so decisions have to be made. This method of working could be applied to the other main forms of mass media, be it television, radio, magazine etc. (Artwick, 2004, p. 16) said a producer can drop a story and therefore close the gate should he/she decided to that they were running out of airtime in the broadcast. (Shoemaker, 1991, p. 3) points out that even the town crier had to decide which messages to broadcast and which to leave.
White’s seminal study, ‘the Gate Keeper: A case study in the selection of news’, looked at one gatekeeper, Mr Gates, and the reasons behind why he, a news editor for a local American newspaper, selected and rejected certain wire agency stories. Perhaps the most telling statistic from it was that 640 of the 1297 news wire items that Mr Gates rejected were done so simply because of a lack of space. (White, 1950, p. 386).
But space is not the only consideration for a gate keeper/editor. (White, 1950)’s study also revealed that the editor discounted wire stories for reasons such as poor writing, a lack of interest in the event and the location of event (White, 1950, p. 386). These events are all determined by the gate keeper, demonstrating the power they have in their role. However, who is driving who? Readership and sales keep the editors in paid employment so offering a media that proved enticing to the consumer was vital. (Park, 1922, p. 330) argued that the editor would select the news that they thought would interest the consumer. (Gans, 1980, p. 678) argued that the common view had been that journalists provide consumers with the information required for self-governance. It could be argued, this method of providing what a news consumer wants, as appose to what they need, would suggest the consumer was actually in charge. In contrast, a study looking at the workflows of 16 wire editors across different news outlets showed editors had no perception of their audience. (Gieber, 1956, p. 432), in his article, “News is What Newspapermen Make It”, said the newspaper editors/gate keepers were too fixated on their work to factor in the effect on the audience. When analysing the two theories, it is important to remember the pre-digital era they were written. From my own experiences as an editor and having explored these two theories, the editor/gatekeeper would have had little regard for their reader. As (Vos and Heinderyckx, 2016, p. 30) describe, the pre digital media world was one where the consumer accepted with little fuss the decisions of the editors. The editors were the sole gatekeepers.
The digital era
The invention of the digital publishing era has changed that, however. Newspapers began publishing online. Space was not the pressing concern anymore, instead finding the journalists to fill it (Singer et al., 2011, p. 4). The online platform became a viable alternative if the paper was full and no more could be afforded by advertisers (Shoemaker and Reese, 2014, p. 181). The internet turned the tables on the traditional role of the journalist gate keeper. No longer could the gate keeper determine the information the public could see. (Singer, 2006, p.275). If the consumer was unable to find the news item they wanted in their regular tabloid, broadsheet, radio or TV station they could go online and search through google to find a different media outlet that was publishing it. (Sonenshine and Durocher, 1997, p. 11) argues that the power of the gate keeper/editor has been diluted as information flows from many places. The description is akin to a dam giving way and water flowing through.
However, the internet offered a cultural change as much as a technological one (Jenkins, 2006, p. 15). News consumers were inspired, and given the platform, to join in the media production cycle (Lewis, 2012, p. 853). Improvements in phone, tablet and laptop technology provided the general public with a camera and writing device to capture what they saw. This idea has had many labels, including user generated content and participatory journalism. The idea being that the general public can perform some of the tasks that were traditionally conducted by journalists and news outlets. (Domingo et al., 2008, p. 331). The evidence of this trend includes instances of the general public publishing news stories on natural disasters, terrorist attacks and protests. (Singer et al., 2011, p. 2).
The internet also closed the distance on news providers and consumers. Prior to the digital era, news consumers would write a letter or telephone a complaint to a newspaper, television or radio station. (Craft et al., 2016, p.683) argue that readers have been complaining to news outlets, editors and ombudsman about a series of issues, most commonly objectivity, balance, bias and accuracy, for decades. Newspapers would often publish complaints or praise in sections commonly termed ‘letters to the editor’. However, this process was also affected by gate keeping editors. These sections would traditionally have a specific editor to sift through the letters and select those for publication. A study by (Renfro, 1979, p. 822) revealed 32 percent of the reader letters sent to an American metropolitan daily newspaper failed to be published and therefore didn’t reach the public.
The beginning of the digital era has closed the distance. Be it email, tweets or another form of digital communication, news consumers are able to contact the journalist, gatekeeper or outlet in an easier format which is quicker and draws instant reaction. Social media sites, including Twitter, have also provided journalists and news outlets with detailed analytics of audience engagement. These gate keepers can get a swift quantitative study of consumer actions around news stories and topics with software development making this easily digestible (McKenzie et al., 2011, p. 378). But despite these capabilities, some journalists are not utilising the data. A study showed that a number of senior editors working for news outlets in America mostly used social media to post links to stories. (Bullard, 2015, p. 176).
For some, though, this closed distance and instant feedback has helped shaped news agendas. In a 2009 survey of U.S. news managers, almost two thirds monitored web statistics each day, more than half said they monitored web site traffic statistics on a daily basis and more than half reported discussing these statistics at least ‘fairly frequently’ in news meetings (Lowrey and Woo, 2010, p. 48). (Gieber, 1956, p. 432)’s newspaper men of a pre digital era may have enjoyed the distance from the reader but that luxury is not afforded in the internet era. As (Singer et al., 2011, p. 8) note, the distance between journalist and news consumer has disappeared.
Twitter
Twitter is an American micro-blogging website that was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Users can read and send messages, or Tweets, of 280 characters publicly, to selected groups or privately via a direct message to another user. Tweets can contain different forms of media, including pictures, videos and audio files. In February 2019, Twitter had 126 million daily active users around the world (Twitter, 2019). This was the first time the site had revealed user numbers. For the vast bulk of journalists in lots of different countries, social media tools, like Twitter, have grown to be indispensable tools for their work. (Thurman, 2017, p. 1) and (Posetti J, 2009, p. 1)
A study by (Gulyas, 2017, p. 890) showed that Twitter and Facebook were the most used social media tools by journalists in mainly western countries. The large numbers of journalists adopting the tool suggest these social media platforms make life easier. (Hahn, 2013, p. 15) argues Twitter can help journalists by providing more sources and views for a story while also aiding the pace of publication. Twitter can also help steer your reporting on to topical trends and news items that have gripped the public. However, large numbers of users do not always lead to diversity and a balanced sample. A study of over 2,700 Twitter users in the U.S. revealed that just 10 percent of Twitter’s U.S. users are responsible for 80 percent of the output. (Hughes and Wojcik, 2019). The study also revealed that the most active 10 percent tended to be democratic voters who were highly educated, suggesting that Twitter in America was providing a small snapshot of society and not a countrywide, diverse view. (Hughes and Wojcik, 2019).
While the invention of social media has undoubtedly been popular with journalists, judged by the vast number of sign ups, it would appear through research, and experience, that Twitter and other platforms have made life more complex for journalists. (Gulyas, 2017, p.885) states that there was a general consensus that journalists have been considerably affected by the introduction of social media tools and the digital age, with the role now considered more complicated than before.
How Twitter has opened the gates
Social media has changed traditional gate keeping and removed the exclusivity of the role from journalists (Wallace J, 2018, p. 275). While the internet has opened up the possibilities of communication, Twitter, and social media sites like it, have provided a platform and community for conversation. Where once consumers would go to the website of their traditional newspaper or tv broadcast for news, many now go to Twitter to consume news from a selection of sources including the original actor of the story. (Blasingame, 2011, p. 4) defines this as ‘gatejumping’, where the news vaults the traditional journalist gate keepers and goes straight to news consumers.
Twitter empowers news consumers.
Twitter is one of a new band of social sites that have fostered a more instant and public form of audience engagement with stories. Audience members can post public critiques under Twitter posts of journalist’s news articles and videos (Lee E and Tandoc E.C, 2017, p. 437). (Lee E and Tandoc E.C, 2017, p. 437) argue that this digital feedback is quicker, more inclusive, more comprehensive and benefits from being public and not limited to journalists.
Twitter does provide the option to block or report Tweets and replies sent, but the vast majority of instant critiques to a news story from a traditional media outlet are visible to all. The public nature of the feedback, it is argued, means journalists remain are cautious and alert to it during as they go about their work (Lee E and Tandoc E.C, 2017, p. 442).
The invention of Twitter, however, has provided a platform for closer interaction between news providers and consumers. It hosts a space for citizen journalism, user generated content or participatory journalism where the public report the news. Twitter and the like are allowing the public to mediate news and therefore weaken the gatekeeping capabilities of journalists. Gatekeeping was considered a series of controls over what content left the newsroom and was mediated to news consumers (Bruns, 2003, 11). But (Singer J. B, 2014, p. 55) states that journalists, or people who work for media outlets, now produce only a portion of “mass-mediated ‘news.” This means that the role of journalist gatekeeper is being threatened by news consumers, the very group it provides for (Bowman and Willis, 2003, p. 7).
(Goode L, 2009, p. 1295) attempts to argue that old-style gatekeeping practices are matched in today’s digital era, despite considerable changes to the method. But experience and evidence suggest different. As (Shoemaker and Vos, 2009, p. 33) argue, the exclusive gate keeper club is over and that we all share the role. The journalist no longer solely decides what is published into the public domain, the people are free to distribute news via Twitter as well.
Trending Twitter and curated feeds
Twitter produces news feeds and trending stories. These are put together by curators and an algorithm. Twitter doesn’t produce news content but instead takes news items from a wide range of traditional media, new media and the general public and reposts it for its own audience (Wallace J, 2018, p. 275).
(Bruns, 2003, p. 34) described this as “Gatewatching” where Twitter, as do other social media platforms, promote the news of others by pointing to it rather than creating and publishing their own. Gatewatchers monitor all news at the gates and highlight to news consumers avenues to explore.
Journalists have followed this practice to create a relatively new story formats to deal with the vast amount of unverified and verified material posted on Twitter and other social sites for a wide range of news topics. These live blogs or live pages traditionally are used for major events, breaking news or live sports events (Coddington and Holton, 2014, p. 237). Social media editors and journalists are tasked with curating a continuingly updated story from the vast amount of verified and unverified information posted on Twitter around breaking news events.
(Thurman, 2017, p. 1) said the amount of content that is being produced is impossible to monitor, verify and digest. However, much of that content contains trivial information or spam (Farhi, 2009, p. 28) (Lehmann et al., 2013, p.3). While the scale of scrutinizing all that content is problematic, it does provide the journalist with the chance to re-establish their role as a gatekeeper of sorts. The volume of material means it is impossible for a news consumer to view all of it, therefore the journalist can sift through the various Tweets and applying journalist values to decide what should be including and which ones omitted (Hermida, 2010, p. 300).
However, Twitter and its news consumer users are also in competition for that curator role. Like with other social network sites, Twitter is complemented by algorithm-based services, such as search engines or news aggregators, which are redistributing and channelling information on the Web (Wallace J, 2018, p. 275).
It offers a news selection in its ‘Moments’ and ‘Trending’ sections and also uses its algorithm to try and tailor the most attractive news selection for your consumption. Choosing posts to repackage and distribute involves selection and assessing what might appeal to your intended audience. (Singer J, 2014, p. 57)
Twitter has also hired a number of curators to work in different languages to provide. The company says this team choose material that best serves the audience (Help.twitter.com, 2020). This definition is parallel to universally accepted definitions of traditional media gatekeeping where communicators pick some elements of a message and reject others (Shoemaker, 1991, p.1). It even fits with the earliest theories about newspaper gatekeeping. (Rosten, 1937, p. 255) argued that: “the entire process of journalism… rests upon selection”.
Conclusion
The role of gatekeeping has fundamentally changed with the advent of the internet. (Wallace J, 2018, p. 275) said the distribution of news by the general public and not journalists has left the gatekeeping theory in a state of flux. Journalists and news outlets went from all powerful decision makers of news distribution, closing gates on any number of stories they didn’t see fit, to a position of battling to survive. (Hermida, 2010, p. 300) argues that Twitter and other social media services are reducing the number of intermediaries between news outlets and consumers, therefore weakening the power of the journalist gate keeper. This essay looks at the history of mass media gatekeeping and how it has evolved through the digital age and then the advent of Twitter. It analyses how Twitter has affected gatekeeping, by opening the gates, removing the distance between journalist and consumer, the detailed story consumption analytics that are now discussed in newsrooms and the emergence of the Twitter curator. All aspects that show journalists no longer enjoy exclusivity on media gatekeeping and in fact share the role with Twitter and the general public.
Social media are the latest developments on the Internet, which have been accompanied by the advent of many Web 2.0 technologies. In general, many Internet specialists point out that social media represents a quantum leap in communication through the Web in a much more interactive way than when the communication was limited with very little information sharing and greater control over data managers.
In addition, social media has provided many opportunities, which may be a place for trading for some companies and the beginning of all projects. Some of the small projects may also support the sharing of information among all network subscribers with the possibility of direct and free interaction on social sites at the end of each article or news. Radio or television programs that they love and follow by proposing proposals to the program master, or asking questions for the guest to be hosted by the program, all this and what social media has done with the revolutions that swept the Middle East and the protests that Many European countries and America have become a new addition, as these events have created so-called citizen journalism, so that the person who lives the juveniles to photograph or write about them and send what is filmed or written to the media eager for news from areas that were not able to access them either because of the system The ruler of his fear of knowing the world what is happening or the difficulty of access to the event, which may exceed the time of minutes only what could be transferred to the world only through those who lived and documented.
Social media refers to the use of Internet technologies and mobile technologies to transform communication into interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Hanlin defined social media as ‘a collection of Internet applications based on ideology and technology from the Web 2, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content.’ Social media are social media as a comprehensive group behind social networking. Social media has changed the way organizations communicate
Among the most famous of social media platforms Facebook, twitter, snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, g+ and a lot more, in our report we will talk about twitter.
About twitter
Twitter is defined as a social networking application and site that allows users to share information so that they can post status updates, news and events, in posts called tweets, and follow other users’ Tweets, Where users can communicate with each other all day using SMS or Twitter, so that the user can type the tweet using the keyboard on the computer or mobile device and send it to the Twitter server, which transfers it to the list of other users on the site, Or what Followers, who subscribed to Twitter to receive tweets by text message to their mobile phones or instant messaging to their personal computers, were invited.
Twitter History
The Twitter application was created using Ruby on Rails, a framework or structure that specializes in Ruby in Internet applications, allowing it to be adapted and integrated with other online services. The service was designed in 2006 by Evan Williams and Biz Stone have launched Podcasting Odeo after finishing their work at Google. Ivan Williams began creating the famous Web authoring tool Blogger, SMS service called Twttr, bought Odeo and started with Corp, then Jack Dorsey joined the management team. The full version of Twitter appeared for the first time at the Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, in March 2007, and Twitter was created the following month.
Twitter features
Twitter has many areas where Twitter can be used. Twitter allows users to post daily life to friends, family and friends, stay connected, create discussion and discuss topics, and allow people to keep in touch with corporate events, Individuals, and individuals, businesses and organizations can use Twitter as a source to promote themselves and their products and services and attract attention to their own events.
Using Twitter
People use twitter tweets for various reasons, such as attracting attention, boredom, bragging, personal promotion to the public and others. It is a way to express feelings to the world and to identify people who are interested in reading what is written and what the person publishes. The site is very informative and provides a variety of news and updates from friends, family, news from researchers, journalists and others. Amateur journalists can find this social network a good environment for publishing their daily events, Twitter is also used to follow up on news of famous persons, and to inform people of the dates of the various TV events, awards and others, and for this reason is called Twitter’s social TV name.
The user starts his work on Twitter as soon as he enters his official website www.twitter.com, registers on the site by creating a private account, and then immediately posts and follows people. Twitter allows sharing of photos, videos and written publications. It is available in several languages including Arabic, English, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, and others.
Twitter can be used as a way to build relationships with others, exchange ideas, access information, news, etc. The difference between Twitter and Facebook is that you can communicate with friends through the follow-up button, not adding a friend, as in the social networking site Facebook.
Through what we have reviewed in the report, we find that Twitter in particular and the means of social media in general, have pros and cons, and we must explore the advantages and take the benefit from these platforms and do not waste our time on something that is not useful, also parent mentor is necessary, whereas a lot of crimes happen while using these media, because any one can login and have an account, as well as dealing with strangers even kids.
There is no objection to the recognition of all new, and benefit from technological development, which allows us access to all sources, and to make use of the available means, taking into account the choice between what is useful and what is useless.
