Twitter has gone from a personal status update network to political battleground with celebrities, public figures, journalists and politicians involved in constant war of words. An interesting article posted by the website Poynter (which was discussed in Week 2 of Online Journalism) has brought up the point of making sure those who are tweeting often are careful of what they write. Here’s a couple of points taken from the article:
- Think before you tweet
- Everything on Twitter is public and can be seen by anyone – not just your friends!
- Be careful if you are writing as a journalist and you are employed by a news organisation – they might not want your opinions to be linked to their assocation
- Make sure you can back up your statements with fact
- Don’t fight with online trolls – things can end up going from bad to worse if things do not stop quickly
- Don’t take your anger out online – again think before you write anything that may offend someone
- Twitter is an addiction like anything else – beware!!
People like Donald Trump use twitter frequently but often at their expense. Many times Trump is fired upon from various different online personalities – especially celebrities. I can be argued a lot of his popularity and mass following has come about because of Twitter. Whether that is a good thing or not, no one knows.
It is just good to stop and think before you tweet your next greatest idea that comes to mind online. You’ll be better off for it. Plus it’ll be a lot less embarrassing.
Zak.
zadkins 