I want to repost this interesting article wrote by Zaiga Lazdina about the use of Twitter. I think she illustrates an interesting point of view that describes perfectly the big impact of the popular micro blogging service in modern society. Please leave a comment and let me know what do you think about with.
By Zaiga Lazdina – How reliable is Twitter as a source of information, especially when other media channels are sleeping? At Twitter they are saying that they are without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening “right now”. Well, I must agree with the “way to share” and “right now” parts but the “discover” thing should be improved with words like “discover what is happening right now in users’ minds”.
Let’s make an example. December, 19. The elections of the Belarus president in which Alexander Lukashenko won. The things that happened after the elections in short: thousands of opposition protesters in Belarus tried to storm the government headquarters, following the country’s presidential election. A lot of people were injured, because demonstration broke out in the capital city of Minsk in support of the presidential candidates from the opposition. It happened because Alexander Lukashenko had been declared the winner, but the opposition claimed that the result was rigged. Interesting note: European Union promised to give 3 billion euros to Belarus, if the elections were held in a democratic way. More about the protest read here.
While all the media kept silent, the social network Twitter made an awesome buzz. Hundreds of new tweets every minute wrote about the situation in Minsk. All the main information channels was waiting something. One of the most popular tweets was: “CNN, BBC, Euronews WHERE ARE YOU?! Yes, Korea is tense and yes, it’s snowing, but the big story is October Sq, Minsk, Belarus.”
At that time it was the only source of information to acknowledge what was happening in October Square. From this point of view, Twitter really showed its power, while the other media channels were slow or unwilling to broadcast what was happening. One very popular tweet of that night was: “The entire value of Twitter is not in tweets like I’m Valerie, I was in a toilet, but mainly in such moments.”
At the same time the information that was retweeted the most was about the tanks all around October Square and the 4 people already killed in Minsk. These messages created mistrust in my mind, because there was no proof of it being true or not. Hundreds of people retweeted this information and spread it all over.
The following day, when news channels finally started giving information about the elections, nobody talked about tanks killing people. Why? Because it was lie. Anyone could write down whatever came to their mind and spread it, because the attention for any information about that event was enormous. Those Twitter users who didn’t understand the tweets in Russian but wanted to know what was happening, went for a translation of those tweets in English. More and more misleading information came out. Another interesting fact: while all the Twitter buzz was going on, a fake profile of the Belarus president was immediately created: “he” gave “his” opinion, which, again, was immediately retweeted.
So, how powerful is Twitter in moments like this, when people become the journalists and tell the news? The brilliant and really amazing thing is that you can get these news immediately and from the very people involved in the event. From the opposite point of view though, they have the opportunity to manipulate and spread fake information. I’m not saying that the news channels don’t do it, but I think it’s more about hiding the information or telling half-truths. On Twitter, lies can be much more brutal.
© 2010 – Original post by Zaiga Lazdina
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Its true twitter its not only: “The entire value of Twitter is not in tweets like I’m Valerie, I was in a toilet, but mainly in such moments.” and definily its not only lies, the fact its that user have to notice what theyw say or do could and will have consecuence.
The flaw in twitter its very the tweet, and that allready to hard to do. And of course they are lot of people that veleive the firt thing other say and belive whit full heart and worts act according to it whitout know the real facts. wicht its the real serios danger on twitter.
Everything on twitter should be taken with a pinch of salt
I wouldnt trust a twitter users unless the account has been verified, but even then its pinch of salt job!
Well of course there are people that invent things, but so are journalist that exagerate things.
About Belarus, there were tanks in the square, and there were people beaten up to they blacked out (just when the square was cleared by the police forces). I know they reported live about that on Russia Today (Russia’s international English language channel).
Definitely social networks like Twitter are not the best places to get information secure, even though there is a strong possibility that the information or news transmitted by twitter are false, which demonstrated that there is no fastest way to report what happens . In reality social networking for its great amplitude is the most efficient information