Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

A picture is worth a thousand words (and your address)

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

To tweet is essentially to make public what would otherwise be considered private information. While some use Twitter to comment on a particular topic, share jokes, quotes or random insights, many Twitter users take the site’s prompt quite literally and share, with varying degrees of specificity, “what’s happening” in their lives.

The Twitter homepage includes a link titled “Privacy” which explains, in short, that if privacy is what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the wrong place. Fair enough, and indeed, rather obvious. Twitter is perhaps the least restrained and least complicated social media outlet. What you see is what you get. Even when we know that to be true, it’s easy to get comfortable—particularly if you use Twitter from a phone, and frequently. This, however, can lead to compromising the safety of personal information beyond what even the most loose-lipped Twitterer may have intended.

Many people who post their photos online are just becoming aware that a photo can contain information about where it was taken. Technology writer Kate Murphy addressed the issue of the geotagged photograph in the August 12th edition of The New York Times. In the article, Murphy explains how the default setting for devices that are GPS enabled is to attach longitude and latitude coordinates to any photo taken with that same device. This information does not show when the photo is uploaded or shared, but on many websites that data remains available to anyone willing to apply the very simple (and free) browser add-on technology it takes to locate the photo’s subject. According to The Times, Facebook does not upload such data and Flickr is working to disable geotagged photographs. Twitter is not the only site where photos containing geotags can be posted, but it does present a particular risk when photos are often accompanied by additionally compromising and up-to-the-minute information such as “Leaving my house” or “Out at dinner.”

It seems unlikely to me that I would be stalked. Anyone looking to break into my house would be seriously disappointed. Nevertheless, this particular privacy matter is a good reminder to double-check what I put online. For me, that means asking myself if what I share online is something I would be comfortable saying aloud in a crowded subway car. While others may have a more liberal take on what can be safely posted, everyone should have a line that cannot be crossed when it comes to maintaining privacy (and managing a public identity) on the web.

Fortunately, it is possible to disable the geotag setting on your smartphone or PDA. Still, doing so reminds me that if the information I post to the internet conceivably compromises my safety or the safety of people I care about, it probably isn’t worth it.

–Sarah Brown

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Breaking news: Ads on Twitter!

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Speaking on a panel with the IAB Annual Leadership Conference on Monday, Twitter’s head of product management Anametra Banerji announced that the company is in the test phase of an advertising platform which will be released in about a month. Cue the theme from Jaws—ads are coming to Twitter!

Except, they’ve been there for a long time by now. Not only can any user tweet to their heart’s content about the wonder of a product, but there are a number of services like Twittertise, AdCause, TwittAd, SponsoredTweets, reTweet.it and BeTweeted which exist to promote the practice of being paid to tweet. There are already a lot of ads of Twitter that many people don’t even realize are ads; back in December, fans of Kim Kardashian were shocked to learn that her odes to things like Reebok EasyTones were less than genuine. She gets paid by ad.ly up to $10,000 to tweet about certain products, as do other celebrities like Soulja Boy, Dr. Drew and Lauren Conrad.

With no further details released by the company, all the announcement really means is that soon there will be something created internally by Twitter which will enable advertising. It is unclear what exactly the platform will do or how it will function, but (as reported by MediaPost) Banerji did say that Twitter will make it “explicitly clear that a sponsor” paid for the ad, which will be “relevant and useful, so the doesn’t think of it as an ad.” What? How can an ad be both explicit about the fact that it is an ad, and yet not be thought of as an ad? This sounds like more of the incognito advertising happening every day, unbeknownst to most people on Twitter. (Never mind that Banerji also said, “Innovate very, very quickly, before someone innovates on top of you.” Really, who hasn’t been innovating on top of Twitter?) The company does need to monetize, but they may have missed the boat on doing it with ads.

With ever more ad platforms being built, consumers seem to have never considered that a celebrity might be paid for an endorsement, and even television channels are being created as a result of advertising demand, it is clear that more attention needs to be paid to media literacy. Advertising is not going away, and it is not inherently a bad thing, but it is important for people to know when they are being coaxed into buying something.

–Emily Long

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King of Pop news?

Friday, June 26th, 2009

With the recent, untimely death of Michael Jackson, a very intriguing dialogue has emerged. While mentioning his passing, anchors on the news stations have included such names as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. All icons that deservedly have their place in our cultural lexicon. However, their passing did not face the environment of social media and citizen journalism of which Mr. Jackson’s departure is now the target.

Reports that arrived immediately following the announcement of Jackson’s death flooded the airwaves (that term’s still relevant when referring to TV and the Internet together, right?). It was in fact via Twitter that we here at the LAMP first learned of this occurrence. It didn’t take long before these reports started to dissect this newly deceased man’s life, pulling up stories, images and videos of his various missteps and malfunctions off the stage. Somehow this was appropriate to mourning the loss of one of the biggest impacts in the last quarter century on our global culture – both entertainment-wise as well as with regards to humanitarian efforts. The public debate became one about his legacy – how it should be framed and what should be its content.

What now emerges, just as the wicks in the mourning candles lit last night in remembrance of this man start to cool, is another debate. What damage is news coverage of his passing doing to other important stories? Is his death newsworthy? In the wake of the protests in Iran, does the sidetracking of the focus the Western media had put on the uprisings harm the cause of the protesters (this of course presumes that media coverage in the West has helped the protesters and not hurt them)?

We do not take a particular position on this matter. Frankly, we’re delighted that people are even debating what is newsworthy and what isn’t. It speaks to a much more prevalent media literacy that exists, and it doesn’t escape our notice that the same media folks are choosing to participate in this polemic (social networks, Twitter) are the same ones that informed us of these current events to begin with.

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#iranelection = Call to action?

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

We’ve been manning an account on Twitter since early 2008, and at first we were merely using it in our workshops to demonstrate to our students the different social media in the Web 2.0 arsenal. Gradually, over time, we started to use the platform to engage in conversations with others about our work but also about the subject of media literacy, which led to us trying to specifically address the medium of Twitter through Twitter itself. Through this implementation, we’ve discovered some incredibly dynamic and beneficial qualities to Twitter, however, none more than Twitter’s search function. Type any term you want, and you receive a realtime, updated stream of tweets from everyone who mentions that term in their tweet. Instantly, you can see what people all around the globe are saying through Twitter about “model airplanes” or “world cup 2010″. Recently, this function has served a much more prescient, geo-political purpose.

On Friday, general elections for Iranian President took place. Shortly after,  incumbent President Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, defeating his rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The reaction worldwide was astonishment and shock, but none more outraged than those within Iran’s borders. Gradually, demonstrations began to assemble on the streets of Tehran, growing in intensity, despite the threats of armed response from the government. Coinciding with these brave protesters, another demonstration has emerged on Twitter. Thousands of people are spreading information, links, pictures and other words of encouragement all with the hash tag of #iranelection, which means when you perform a Twitter search on that term, you can witness the constant stream of tweets it chains together. I encourage you to spend a few minutes reading through the long list of updates. It’s pretty incredible. You see hundreds and perhaps thousands of folks around the world using this “useless” medium to voice their support for those Iranians gathering to demand their voices heard and their votes counted.

While monitoring the events that are unfolding on Twitter (and on some other sites as well), several things occurred to me. Numerous messages are being forwarded about actions by the Iranian Government:

“They’re cutting off all connections now, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger Twitter..”

“CONFIRMED!! Army moving into Tehran against protesters! PLEASE RT! URGENT!”

While monitoring this stream, I’ve encountered these repeated over and over by folks who probably have the kindest of intentions, but how do they possibly know that what they are spreading is accurate information? There have been several photos posted via TwitPic that depict some gruesome scenes, but again, how are we certain these photos are coming from these harrowing events? Another item was posted several times in Twitter that the BBC’s website had changed it’s colors to green in order to show solidarity with Mousavi’s supporters (“2mw: rt@omasciandaro: The BBC web site just went green in support of Iraninan opposition. Small gesture, huge message. Go green! #iranelection“). However, this isn’t true. The BBC’s website has been these colors for a long while.

We asked several questions on Twitter about this subject:

-How many of you are following #iranelection? How many of those tweets w/that label can you trust? What % need to be dismissed? % heeded?

-Twitter + #iranelection = first Internet uprising? http://bit.ly/ZQYDc But who’s in command? Are there guiding principles?

-How do you trust the “factual” ones? are those twitpics really pics of #iranelection? Who’s factchecking?

While this is by no means a statistically significant sampling, the only responses we got to our questions were of the nature that factchecking, guidance and critical analysis weren’t important to what was being attempted through Twitter. This response brings up a whole bunch of other questions: What constitutes an uprising? Do these well-intentioned folks really understand Iranian politics and the positions Mousavi held in the election?

Maybe we’re seeing the first Internet uprising, and perhaps other uprisings also dealt with this amount of misinformation being disseminated, but one thing is for sure: Twitter is more than just telling others about the chili cheese dog you had for lunch.

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Twitter in the classroom

Friday, April 10th, 2009

As the April 8, 2009 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education reported, an instructor at Penn State is encouraging his students to tweet in the classroom — during class.  That’s right.  He wants his students to use twitter to converse with each other and him during his class period.  How shocking!  How disruptive!  How nuts must he be?  Any sensible professor wants control in the classroom, which means students listen carefully, raise their hands one at a time when they have a thoughtful question or comment, and everyone remains calm and studious.  The professor is the one who gets to do most of the talking.  It’s a nice top-down arrangement that’s worked for hundreds of years of formal education.  What is this guy thinking?

What Cole W. Camplese, the instructor of a group of Penn State graduate students,  is thinking is that students need to engage.  We’re all trying to figure out what the onslaught of digital communication, and social networking in particular, means for our everyday living.  Those of us who spend many classroom hours with young adults know that digital media are changing our students who use them all the time.  We can’t expect to reach them the same way we did even a decade ago.   Clearly, the old education models aren’t always working, and inevitably are changing because of digital media.  I give credit to professors on the forefront of experimentation in the classroom with the tools of discourse that  students are engaging in outside the classroom.  

True, it’s hard to imagine how a focused discussion or imparting of information can take place when everyone in the class is sending quick bursts of thought in short text messages via their phones or laptops.  Obviously, what Professor  Camplese wants is for students to comment on the materials being covered, not writing about things personal or irrelevant to the class topic at hand.   But the technicalities of making the running stream of tweets available on screen for all to see, and analyze, throughout the class period bring difficulties: in setting up and in managing the stream throughout a fixed period of time.  How can so many things happen at once?  Will students actually be learning anything worthwhile?

Though this seems odd and certainly unprecedented, I admire Camplese’s approach.  After all, engaged students are happier, more attentive and more apt to learn. And those in the classroom who are too shy to speak might not be too shy to tweet.  Imagine if all of the students were building on each other’s ideas and comments–then had a recorded stream of their comments to look back on in subsequent class periods?  This could be a new model for classroom engagement.  Or it could be a huge bust.  Regardless, it’s worth a try.

Last Friday, April 3, I gave a workshop at the day-long Northeast Media Literacy Conference at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.  Near the end of our workshop, which I called “Media Literacy is Medium Literacy,” participants and I engaged in a discussion about the gap between generations when it comes to using digital media for social networking.  They, like I, grumbled loudly about Twitter.   Yet despite my personal feelings about tweeting, I told them, I can appreciate it as a form of communication highly valued by some.  I can be personally uninterested, even somewhat annoyed, but professionally interested in the means and uses of this form of contact.  We agreed, by the end of our discussion, that it’s best to try to understand technologies and services like Twitter because there’s no going back.  And the ways in which digital communication will (and has already) change learning and education requires new ways for teachers to think about their role in the whole educational process.  That is something I find very interesting.

It’s a time of experimentation, of open-mindedness, and of skepticism.  Ask any professor — it’s always a good time for skepticism.  But we shouldn’t let it get in the way of our open-mindedness.

If I get my technical act together I may try it in the classroom next fall.  But don’t–ever– expect me to tweet about my mundane personal stuff.  Not even I care about some of it.  

–Katherine G. Fry

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