Twitter has gone mainstream, with Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher each racking up over a million followers. Critics have panned the microblogging site as narcissistic at best, but media-savvy people around the world have adopted Twitter for far more serious purposes. Moldovans used Twitter to organize protests against fraudulent elections, witnesses to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai kept the world updated via Twitter, and citizens in Myanmar used Twitter to circumvent media censorship and report on the true severity of last year’s deadly cyclone.
Humanitarian relief workers in particular have taken to Twitter’s short messaging technology. Its 140 character limit and ability to reach multiple people simultaneously have proved extremely useful for communicating in rapidly-evolving situations.
Read more on the PBS website.
No comments:
Post a Comment