Why aren't more people commenting on the usefulness of Twitter and other social networking tools as a means to get information on what is happening inside Iran?
Facebook pages are constantly updated and twitter is abuzz with updates. #Iranelection is a still a higher ranked trending topic on Twitter (so much so that Alyssa Milano is tweeing on Iran, too). Why aren't we examining this further? Is it a political thing or is it that people are trying to understand the fallout of Twitter as news source (confirmed and unconfirmed)?
Clarification added 5 months ago:
My question is about the dynamics of twitter and blogging: how the uses of both continue to evolve, etc., and what that may mean across all elements of life be it politics, culture, communication, etc.
Answers (6)
Erica F
Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon
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On Twitter itself, there has been a tremndous amount of commentary regarding that. The hashtag #iranelection has been high in trending topics for some time.
On the news shows I watch, it's also been a matter of much discussion.
I don't read newspapers, which are set up to rely on their own reporters, rather than source from others, so that may be why they are not commenting.
If you mean here, well, it's only tangentially relevant. LI is neither a place for politics nor Twitter, so it won't come up as a topic in the same way that Using LinkedIn will.
For a constant stream of discussion on the topic, Twitter itself is the best place for news.
Cheers,
Erica Friedman
Yurikon LLC
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Paul T
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Simple: signal-to-noise ratio is low and trust is low.
Many of these social networks are poorly filterable aggregations of every tweet, status change and vampire bite request from everyone in your network(s). Seriously, what does Alyssa Milano know about Iran's internal political landscape?
And, the ease and openness of these networks make them prime targets for manipulation too.
So, while it is possible to find a good source of actionable information in these tools, and I don't mean to imply that the sources don't exist, it's the way they are structured that makes them less than useful.
Leonid L
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After all is said and done, more is said than done. Twitter is a tool which is only as good as the people who use it. Because stupidity is infinite, twitter has a lot of ascii garbage in addition to quality news. The signal-to-noise ratio is weak there.
Clarification added 5 months ago:
Lol, I just used signal-to-noise as well.
Daniel J
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I'm puzzled about your premise. I have seen quite a bit of reporting about the use of Twitter and Facebook during the Iran crisis, so much so that the US government asked them not to do a scheduled maintenance over one weekend so that the service would not be shut down.
Geoff F
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Do you actually thing that Alyssa Milano Tweeting on Iran is useful?
You think this is evolution?
Just because it's popular doesn't mean it is informative. Your examples of "interesting" are amazing for their banality. What did you learn about Iran in this way that had decision making quality? This answers the question.
Highly accessible channels become contaminated with dubious information.
Josh C
General Manager at Web Industries; Itinerant Writer; and Decent Little League Coach
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Hi Parissa,
I agree with others that there has been quite a lot of discussion about the usefulness of Twitter in this regard.
That said, it's also true about the comments re "signal to noise", but there are also some very effective screening and filtering tools available which increase the signal and reduce the noise.
Josh.
