Microblogging: “Tweet Tweet”

Having previously been a regular Twitter user, I had not thought much into Twitters relationship with journalism, let alone tweeting being classified as something called ‘microblogging.’ Microblogging is a broadcast medium that falls under the category of blogging. It differs from a traditional blog because its word count is often short in length, thereby encouraging the author to publish more frequent posts. Clearly recognisable as a function of Twitter, I want to tell my experience of becoming a citizen journalist and using Twitter to communicate with an audience on a journalistic rather than sociable level.

When discussing Twitter in light of microblogging, I see the 140 character posts in relation to ‘soundbites.’ From an array of information and ideas, the author has chosen a short extract, or snippet that best reflects what they want to say. In essence the micro blogger is giving his or her audience a preview of the wider story and over the course of a few tweets, drip feeding them with news and information.

Screenshot: My Twitter 

Having practised and written over the last couple of years coherent, precise news stories that followed the step by step regulations of traditional journalism, microblogging seemed a bit of a problematic task at first. It was almost like giving the audience the headline and then cutting out the main body of text, leaving them wondering what comes next. In many way’s this does have its perks. It means that the author can be more adventurous in their tweeting, they can produce a few sentences and entice their followers to return to their Twitter page to see what they have to post next.

I published a few follow on tweets:

Screenshot: My Twitter

Posting pictures and links alongside tweets could sometimes be very frustrating, as both forms of material take up a lot of the word count, therefore limiting even more what you can say. However, I believe that pictures and links are necessary in forming an engaging tweet, allowing them to speak for themselves. I tended to include a lot of links in my tweets so my followers could be re-directed to other sources of information that could further their knowledge and meant I didn’t really need the extra characters anyway.

Screenshot: My Twitter

Likewise with imagery. It’s always thoughtful as a micro blogger to show your audience with a photograph what you are simply trying to say. Also the use of the image can immediately liven up a tweet and tailor it to ‘you,’ personalising the information sourced. As discussed in my previous blog posts, news lovers in a digital era are craving the subjectivity in their news reading.

Screenshot: My Twitter

Screenshot: My Twitter

Like I previously said, I used Twitter more on a social basis and the use of the #hashtag was not something I had really thought much about. When using my own personal account, I didn’t really feel the need to connect with an audience beyond my own followers. However, since using my ‘journalism’ account and posting tweets on topics that would be of interest to those outside of my followers, I decided to incorporate the hashtag. A trending hashtag is the most popular and these change on a daily basis, however, a frequently used hashtag will attract a substantial amount of Twitter users to your tweet. I believed that because I was in essence a citizen journalist sourcing news, using a tool that would encourage more users to read and take notice of my tweets was extremely important in circulating news and spreading it across the Twitter platform.

Screenshot: My Twitter

Twitter offered other forms of engagement, such as polls and retweeting. I found I did not recieve a lot of votes on my polls, so if I was gathering responsive information this would not be very beneficial. 

Screenshot: My Twitter

Using the retweet button was always a good move. It enabled me to collect and post other sources of news on my own Twitter page, which added to my previous tweets or acted as a building block for my future tweets. I wanted my followers to see other views from organisations or indviduals. This further heightened the attraction of my Twitter. 

Screenshot: My Twitter

Screenshot: My Twitter

Having contributed to my own blog and being an English student meant I was all too familiar with expressing my thoughts in ‘wordy’ sentences. I enjoyed being able to test my other writing abilities and using Twitter as a way of helping my journalistic skills. I found it palatable and appealing as a medium for news sourcing. I can now articulate a sentence in a more concise manner, which I feel is a key attribute if I want to dip my toes further into the journalistic waters in the future. As well as a citizen journalist and long form blogger, I can now say I have put my hand to microblogging. The list is endless in a digital journalism era.  

To finish with, a question that I have been asking myself is, does this make microblogging more of a journalistic task, because authors are having to think more into the structure and clarity of the information they are tweeting?

What are your thoughts? Comment below.