Twitter blog post

Twitter is an online social networking site that allows its users to communicate to one another for a variety of different reasons. Twitter is consisted of news, entertainment, and also opinions. Twitter allows the users to tweet/post short messages to their followers and also gives the readers a chance to reply to that tweet. Twitter users can reply to other people, retweet something they agree with or think is funny, and favorite something they really like. Twitter is also used beyond just socializing with other users, it is used for marketing as well. Twitter is known to be the first social media site that knows the news instantly. When the Boston Marathon bombing occurred on April 15, 2013, Twitter did its job with giving updates within the first five minutes after the explosions began. People in buildings around the marathon were watching Twitter for updates. They were asking each other questions, but constantly checking social media. Another example of marketing was when there were terrorist attacks in Paris. Instantly, celebrities around the world were tweeting out #PrayForParis. The reportings of the ISIS attack was devastating and within minutes of it happening, the world knew. Twitter is used to get the message and stories across to its viewers and to keep the followers invested into the news. In 2011, protests were occurring in Egypt and Twitter was used to continue the revolutions. Hashtags were made to persuade Congress to Free Alaa who was sent to prison for a year for organizing a protest. Twitter was used to communicate the issues that different countries are dealing with, for the whole world to see. In 2017, Houston was flooding. People were tweeting out for help and getting their messages across to find a solution on how to protect one another. However, some people tweeted back discouraging tweets. Twitter is very opinionated and is a form of social media where you can say whatever you want. Social media is continuously growing and Twitter has became more popular throughout the years. Twitter can be used as a journalistic tool by presenting news, crime, and accident stories to the public. Many news channels have their own page and always post their news stories on Twitter instead of just broadcasting it on TV. Twitter is used for politics and certain organizations as well by again tweeting out news on passings of laws, thoughts of a new law, charities, and more. President Trump is a big twitter influencer and many people have controversial thoughts towards him and what he chooses to tweet publicly. One topic that Twitter successfully communicated was the people’s march in January 2019. This was when a group a teenagers gathered around a Native American man doing traditional chants/songs and the teens were mocking him and laughing at him in his face. Twitter covered this thoroughly and everyone was sharing their opinions on it. Another event that occurred and is still occurring is March Madness. People are posting pictures of their brackets, their thoughts of who will win and the teams are tweeting updates on their wins/losses. Everyone knows or has heard about March Madness through the news or social media. Most of the younger generation is on Twitter almost every day and can view all of the updates for the standings of each team. A third event that has recently occurred is on March 30, 2019 there was an Earth hour at 8:30 p.m. People tweeted to turn of lights and power sources for one hour at that time. The message spread across fast and many people were involved in the movement. For the twitter project, I chose Buzzfeed, Channel 4 Buffalo, and the NHL as my three organizations that I tweeted to. I chose Buzzfeed because it relates to the career I am in. I am studying journalism and always had a dream as working for this social media company. I chose Channel 4 Buffalo because of my major as well and because I have learned a lot about writing news stories and how to depict them. For the organization out of my comfort zone, I chose the NHL. I don’t know much about hockey and I had to do a lot of research. This challenged me but I was able to learn new things about the NHL. This experience of using Twitter is different than blogging because we were able to communicate with others and learn about news events and tweet out our opinions for others to view. This project was different than other forms of social media especially Instagram which is strictly posting pictures or videos of whatever you choose. Twitter is the social media app that allows people to know what is going on in the world right away. Other social media sites aren’t as quick. The experience of learning new topics, researching and communicating with classmates allows us to build our skills in the social media world.