Twitter is the new way of communicating with friends, peers, and the world. Within the click of a button and 280 characters, journalists and modern-day citizens can influence the planet within seconds. While Twitter can be used to discuss various topics, a subject that is discussed frequently is newsworthy to our country.
More recently, the platform of Twitter was used to cover the 2020 Presidential Election, which illuminates the popularity of new media in this digital age. In addition, previous Elections were covered over television, newspaper, and even billboards which are all “old media” techniques. For instance, during this election, the University of Illinois discusses how “news outlets often tweet first, then post online, then print”. During this election Twitter became a crucial tool for candidates to reach their supporters. Millions of Tweets were posted all surrounding this subject causing Twitter to rise in popularity for political and our countries news. Instead of the passive old days of old media, when an individual cannot react immediately to a news article, Twitter now “gives journalists and candidates immediate feedback from the once-passive audience.” Within seconds, politicians, celebrities, influencers, and anyone can react, retweet, and tweet about any event that is happening. For example during the first presidential debate in 2016, after presidential candidate, Donald Trump insulted Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly, the names Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump were trending all of that heated month of August. Furthermore, this example shows that his Twitter activity did influence media coverage in America. However, although Twitter was consistent and immediate with its coverage, the University of Illinois illuminates in their article that the “old media” newspaper outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal were the “three papers [that] put the outbursts into the context of deeper debate coverage, such as one story about Trump’s 20-plus years of misogynistic remarks about women. And another story noted how none of the Republican candidates uttered more than a few words about poverty in America.”
It is evident that Twitter is an up and coming news source, where you can find the most current and even most uncensored content. However, it is the big time Newspapers that do journalism at its best, who find the content, and dive deeper, to unravel the larger story behind the fast facts.
Journalism 2.0 