Twitter Debut for The Pope!

Within a few hours of Benedict XVI joining Twitter, he has already received 755,153 followers!

Since midday today, he has written three tweet posts, in eight languages on the pope’s eight Twitter accounts. Benedict made his Twitter debut at the Vatican during his weekly audience. He was surrounded by a group of young people who ensured he did not make any mistakes.

“Pontiff joins Twitterverse but Vatican says Benedict XVI is ‘not the kind of person who will be checking his tweets at lunch'” (The Guardian, 2012)

Here are some news stories on the announcement:

The Guardian

NY Times

BBC

 

Alfred Hermida and Twitter

I was lucky enough to interview Alfred Hermida last week for my Special Study Research Project. As recently discussed on one of my last posts, I am basing my project on Twitter.

Twitter Can Be Dangerous

Newsnight image: BBC News Website

In recent events it is evident that Twitter can be a very dangerous tool. The most recent Twitter story is about the Tory chairman Lord McAlpine and how he has been ambushed with false speculation through the internet, that he was the paedophile mentioned in the allegations on the BBC’s Newsnight. Within the past two weeks alone, Twitter has made an impact on many events such as the resignation of the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, Ian Overton, followed then by George Entwhistle, director general of the BBC.

The Rise of Social Media and its Impact on Mainstream Journalism. Nic Newman.

Twitter Revolution by cartoonist Mike Luckovich.

When reading Nic Newman’s working paper: ‘The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream journalism’, a few topics arose which I found rather interesting. Firstly the success and falls of social media (mainly focusing on Twitter) and the relationship created from social media that you do not see in mainstream journalism.