What is twitter used for –

  • Connecting with other people
  • Been involved with the news
  • A way to connect with celebrity’s
  • Been a part of a community
  • Getting your thoughts and opinions out there
  • Promoting
  • Uses and gratifications theory
  • Campaigning and to raise awareness

Some organisations that use twitter to promote and up-sell there produces would include:

  • BBC
  • BBC NEWS
  • TOP GEAR
  • CHANNEL 4
  • ITV
  • MTV
  • VIRGIN ATLANTIC
  • STARBUCKS

All of these organisations and compromises use twitter to interact with there “fans” to let people know where and when there produces will be released and how much other people already like there produces and how much you should go and buy or watch them.

Some organisations that Campaigning and raising awareness  using twitter would include:

  • STAN UP TO CANCER
  • CANCER RESEARCH
  • MACMILLAN CANCER
  • RSPCA
  • RSPB

These organisations all take to twitter to get there opinions out there about there campaigns, they use it to challenge other people and how they can help people with these illnesses if we help. They all use it to spread the word about there belives on there subject matter.

The news often comes to be broken on social media, here’s one that was broken on twitter In January 2009:

  1. “US Airways flight 1549 hit a flock of geese shortly after take-off, stalling its engines. Pilot Chesley Sullenburger calmly glided the powerless Airbus and its 155 passengers towards Manhattan’s River Hudson and it crash landed in the water with minimal injuries – right in the center of the city.

Onlooker Jim Hanrahan broke news of the daring escapade on Twitter, a full fifteen minutes before mainstream news outlets. “I just watched a plane crash in the hudson,” he typed, with typical Twitter understatement. Other tweeters followed, including some posting the first images of the crash.

crash-650-80

2. “Michael Jackson’s death

News of the King of Pop’s untimely demise in June 2009 was a TMZ scoop, but it went viral via Twitter.

How did TMZ manage to trump the mainstream media, all of whom were camped outside the hospital waiting for official confirmation? Simple. TMZ didn’t wait for official confirmation – it relied on unnamed sources and on-the-spot rumour instead.

On the day of Jackson’s death, tributes and coverage accounted for nearly 30% of all Twitter traffic.”

3. Ice on Mars

“Breaking news on Twitter isn’t all death and destruction, thankfully. The world learned about a pivotal Martian discovery not from Associated Press, the BBC or CNN, but from the unmanned mission’s dedicated Twitter account.

“Are you ready to celebrate,” asked the 2008 tweet, “We have ICE!”. Proof of water on the planet is a strong indicator that it may in future be able to support life. You know, once we’ve finished using up Earth.”

http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/internet/10-news-stories-that-broke-on-twitter-first-719532

Uses and gratifications theory     –

  • Looks at why audience use the media.
  • Assumes that audiences are active consumers – they are not passive.
  • Audience have variety of needs that they gratify through the media.
  • We use the media as a diversion to take your mind of something.
  • We use the media to identify our personality because it’s comforting.
  • We use the media to enhance personal relationships.
  • We use the media to find out what is happening in the world around us (news).

This covers personal relationships, diversion, surveillance/personal identity. All four of these points come in to the uses of twitter and this blog post because people use twitter for all 4 of these reasons.