Twitter as news

Is twitter news? Yes, but not in conventional way.  Short answer is, it is the source for breaking news, among a small, young and affluent audience. That is a small fraction of what it is because it is many things to many people.

The day of a morning and afternoon newspaper, 3 networks news channels and vinyl records are over.  Social media spreads lots of news and Twitter is a huge part of that. Welcome to the digital age and the transformation of the the analog world.

What it isn’t, not FB, FB has more people getting their news off of it, a larger market share, a more diverse market, yet delivers something total different and has different strengths and weaknesses. As of 2013, FB has 1.1 billion users vs 230 million users.

Facts about twitter making it different than FB, 140 characters, just the facts and hyperlink, 1) Good for passing along info 2) Conversation shifts and evolves 3) Not a reliable gauge of public opinion, changes in real time.

It is also one of the top 10 most visited websites.

Less than 10% of adults get their news on Twitter, unless “adult” is qualified, under 30 year old adults the number goes up. Plus, twitter followers tweet news stories and follow news journalist, are informed, educated and more likely to affluent.

On 11 March, 2011, I watched on my computer and watched the Tsumami hit Japan and I realized the power and impact of Twitter on a news event unfolding in real time.

Three years and one day latter, an explostion at 9:31, Twitter picks up the event 12 minutes before the 1st major news reports that a serious event occurs.  The map above shows tweets from the explosion.

Twitter has been an element of social communication since the riots in Iran, a tool in the Occupy movement and the Arab spring. It was described as "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history. the Green movement remains the first major world event broadcast worldwide almost entirely via social media.  Last spring, the Prime Minister of Turkey band social media until his election was over.

The Pentagon pundits scandal was a scandal where retired officers where put on the dole by Donald Rumsfield and given talking points to share with the mainstream media to rally support of the war in Iraq.

Analog approach verses a digital one.  President Obama using social networking and the Internet in 2008 “must seek outside authorities to give credibility to seemingly neutral reports”,  verses using twitter allows reaction to events, get message across w/ 4.6 million or 42.3 million followers getting message from source.

The future of Twitter will prove that digital media is the future of communicating the news while analog exists along with it until it diminishes it as it fads away or the business model adapts to a smaller market share or dies. Twitter is a critical and irreplaceable part of any process that seeks to verify breaking events.

This was a project for a Media and Journalism class that I took last semester.  It was a great class that I enjoyed very much.

A book about my cat

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly baby photo books are the perfect way to preserve your baby's precious moments.

Lead with your heart

Lead with your heart, a photo by jimifoxx on Flickr.

I love Instagram and I randomly caught this image on the left of Audrey Ann, AUDREYANNDAVIS_ on Instagram. Although her profile has changed since I found it last fall, back then her tag line was, "Hi, I'am Audrey, I love you, I wish life was fair."  I love the contrast of "I love you" and "life isn't fair."  I couldn't get it out of my head. It put into words the conflicting emotions that I had at the time. I found it when I had cancer and I was dealing with the reality of dying way earlier than I was mentally prepared to. My love for art, people and life seemed magnified due to something growing in me that could bring me to an early end. Between living in NYC, doing two combat tours in Iraq, I had life threatening moments but they were brief and random. Cancer is drawn out and a total different mind fuck. The image of Audrey just looking out with the sun catching her eyes fit this conflicting sentence perfectly. It was haunting and beautiful, full of love with a tinged with darkness.

Lindsey Ireland is an actress in NYC. I meet her in person around the same time as I saw Audrey on line. Lindsey had a huge impact on me because she is so full of life and energy. She was like a bright light; her energy was contagious and inspirational. She is an actress and has already stared in a movie where was a lead in. She loves Liz Taylor and she is has a passion for old movies. I captured her image from her ID card from an event she was doing, the kind of thing models and actresses do who are young, pretty and outgoing. But girls how are young and pretty are a dime a dozen in places like LA and NYC. Lindsey was different. There was a promotional clip that she did to sell herself as an actress that I found on line. That 5 minute clip captured her essence like lighting in a bottle. It was very inspiring and if I was an agent or movie producer, I would find a project for her. She will be a star someday, you heard it here first!

That was less than a year ago but it seems as if it was much longer. I am healthy, cancer free and these two girls have no idea of the positive impact was made on me by them just being on line, in Lindsey's case with her Instagram page and Lindsey by my brief interaction with her in NY by talking with her on a beautiful sunny afternoon.

That is the backstory of this picture.

21 and done

Sunday’s are great.  The weekend does end but it is day two in time off from the 9 to 5 if you are a person in the usual 9 to 5, 5 day a week work cycle.  This Sunday, I watched my New England Patriots win in overtime.  This segued into 60 Minutes, which talked about Colorado, the most progressive state in the union pertaining to dispensaries, the state closest to legalize marijuana outright and not just medical marijuana but make the right to grow a plant and consume it.  60 minutes did a great job reporting this story and when pot is legal, will go down with MSNBC in reporting the marijuana situation during this prohibition era of marijuana in a fair and objective manner.

The stats on the men and women who died in Afghanistan speak for themselves.  For years after my 1st tour in Iraq, I kept a count of the death toll from the deaths in Iraq, from 2004 to about 2007, the year that I was gearing up for my next tour to Iraq.

 

20 down and one to go

 I do not post anything on Facebook, outside to thank everyone for wishing me Happy Birthday once a year.  I do follow some interesting items on it though and one of them is called Exposing the Truth.  Today, I found this link about 8 ways to bring down the pyramids of control.  The first of the 8 steps is media and intelligence and it suggests that you turn off the TV and start a blog!  It says that the TV dumbs you down.  I often blog while watching TV so maybe my blog would be better if I had no distractions.  The second is one I can relate to because it talks about “natural medication like cannabis and I think I have been pretty clear how I feel about marijuana.  While searching for the link that Exposing the truth had used to post on FB, I came across a blog, a very well researched and written blog, about the 8 ways America is headed back to the age of RobberBarons.  I couldn’t agree more. That history has repeated itself, mankind is evolving in so many ways yet people’s quest for power, greed money and control still exists and it appears to be just part of the human condition.

Saturday was a great day where my family celebrated a number of family member's birthdays.  That night, I got to see my grandaughter and I babysat her.  I watched a great Saturday Night Live whose guest host was Bruno Mars.  He is very talented, I had never heard of him before but I was very impressed with his talent singing, he was funny in the skits that he was in and he is a hansome guy.  Almost to good looking to be straight, not that it matters or isn't anyones business but his own.

This is post number 20 and it is a good segue to one of my favorite topics to blog about, 9/11.  The 20 dollar bill, if one folds it correctly, turns into images of the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon smoking on 9/11.  It is like a subliminal message every time someone has this bill in their hand. 9/11, the event that lead to the US occupation in Afghanistan.  I have listed the number of soldiers who have died in that God forsaken country on the image above and it is the last time that I will be doing this for this 21 blog posting project.  It is very sad that America these young people are dying in a war that corperate, main stream media seems to have loss interest in, that Obama and Romney are talking very much about this war.  I wish those wanting to be reelected or elected to run the United States could explain what this country gains for from all of the money spent and all of the lives lost in Afghanistan.

Your new waitier, an interactive screen at your table

Two more post for this project of mine.  My goal has always been to do 100 posts here on jimikeen here on google and convert to WordPress, that is still the plan. 

Today was uneventful except for the what I witnessed while finishing my birthday party shopping with my daughter.  We wrapped up our shopping by lunch time and went into a chain pizza restaurant at the factory outlet mega stores.  After ordering our drinks, we started fooling around with a screen on our table which was interactive and let you order food, get your check and find a movie and pay for it after watching the trailer! 

My modest retirment account, one that I was very worried about totally tanking with a bad day on Wall Street, did not.  I have used this account as much as a rainy day loan account as much as my retirment account.  It saved me when I needed money to fix up my house when I needed to get it nice enough to sell in a buyers market, when I needed a first, last and security deposit when getting an apt after I sold my property, etc.  It tanked alot back in 2008 but now that I am closer to retirement so I am a little more conservative and I plan to invest in the Roth IRA plan once I pay off my last TSP loans!

Escape to New York

I spent 24 hours in NYC, a place that I lived in the late 80's for a number of years.  Although NYC is a very different city now, it is just as great as it was, not better but different.  I had been laid up for quite some time so to get down there was great for my mind. 
I should have gotten ready to go the night of the 16th but that was the night of the debate.  Which I watched and I was happy to see Obama with a little fight in him this time.  Being Tuesday, I also watched Sons of Anarchy, a show that I watched the first two seasons of on Netflex.  It was a great TV night, I stayed up to late and on the day of my B day, I got off to a slow start but with nothing planned for the day, I took a noon train to NYC.  It was a beautiful day, I checked into where I was staying, visited a good friend down in the village for some cocktails and went off for a massage and I spent the rest of the evening shopping for Birthday presents for family members.  I got to sleep around 2:00 am and woke up very early the next day.
After a great breakfast at my favorite restaurant in NYC, Cafe Olin.  I hadn't seen enough of the High Line the day before so I went back and it is amazing how that place has been developed since I saw it last year.  I was so taken with the High Line and being a little tired, I took to long getting to my bike, I was trying to make up time to get to my bus, a very inexpensive Megabus, (a mode of transportation which would have cost half of what my Amtrak ticket was.)  I just missed the bus and for three times the cost of that bus, I took Amtrak back to RI and off to some birthday celebrations.  I love taking the train but my next trip to NYC will be via the Megabus!