CBrachyrhynchosAug 7, 2017

One problem I have with twitter-based trend pieces in journalism is that not only do I think it's lazy journalism to point and say, "someone said something stupid on the internet," it also amplifies the work of a tiny minority of people willing to engage in trolling or flamewars around a given issue.

And we've known for a while that unmoderated and unbounded internet discussions tend to turn into Cyriak-like levels of explosive self-referential horribleness. https://youtu.be/1dF2ZLq7oBk

WilliamAug 7, 2017
Show threadCBrachyrhynchos

(cont) Journalism about twitter needs to be considered with the same degree of skepticism as journalism about press releases (which also frequently fails). The tweet needs to be regarded as having a similar degree of promotional or advocacy bias.

And the assumption that popular tweets reflect a neutral vox populi needs to be rejected outright.

Aug 7, 2017 at 9:25pmWeb
Show threadCBrachyrhynchosAug 7, 2017
(Cont) Reporters using social media as a primary source really need to learn about Zipf's law.