and as noted by Queensland University of Technology internet and social media researcher Jean Burgess the platform has matured: “As big events took place on Twitter, a few natural disasters, a few elections, a few uprisings, the mainstream media picks up on it as it’s something that’s actually legitimate and actually important and therefore brings massive new numbers of users to the platform,”
“What Twitter is clearly doing now and including with this PR stuff about the year in review, is putting all of their weight behind a carefully constructed single sort of business model that’s positioning it as a mainstream media platform that can do serious business with advertisers.”
Under pressure to deliver returns to its venture capital investors, Twitter’s business model has changed. It used to want to know what its users were doing and encouraged them to find out what was happening to people and organisations.
“What we’re seeing here is Twitter telling us that what Twitter is now for, (it) is for following big global events, celebrities and extending our mainstream media consumption,” she said. “They’re a new kind of media company that relies on our social networks and on us voluntarily sharing and commenting on information rather than just receiving it, like in a broadcast model.
“Just like YouTube has changed over the past few years from being focused purely on amateur content to being a more mainstream media company, Twitter’s trying to do the same thing.”
ummm, what happened to the Spirituality category? oops, never mind, found it
{edited. /hangs head}
Graham:
that’s because you expected to find it under “S’ for spirituality !
But never fear, “Levant” is still here, though no one really is sure of what countries it now consists.
-mole