Kyle Howard
4/8/09

Research Topic Proposal:
Twitter

Christine Gledhill claims that, at least on some level, our “situation” or “social and cultural constitution” determines how and why we engage with a cultural text or social activity of some kind. One major aim of this paper will be to provide a sampling of the various kinds of individuals who tweet and why.
I think specific case studies – that is to say actual people (much like William Butler’s approach) – are appropriate for this project. Butler found his case studies by having a post pasted on a respectable blog within the Star Wars community and examined over 100 e-mail responses. But with something like Twitter, I think the best approach would be to follow the pages of my “friends” and then direct message any relevant twitterers for some follow up questions. I also plan on trying to have some twitter experiences of my one to examine. In order to fully understanding something like twitter, I think actually using the service is an important part of the research. The beauty of twitter
What about Twitter itself and it works? Another task of this project will be a Saussurian approach to twitter and carefully examine the structure of the service. Also important is the question of how this system and its design affect the way we use it. Twitter is a “micro-blog” and, as such, it restricts user posts to 140 characters or less (including spaces). Is twitter an example of the internet corrupting the English language and the written word? How does a word limit determine the things we can write about?
Twitter is a unique form of micro-blogging in that it works through a variety of mediums (IM, SMS, or, the web itself) and other services (Tweet @ Facebook). Is twittering on your smartphone that different from being on your laptop? Is a “tweet” on facebook any different from a “twitter?” This latter question brings up another distinct aspect of Twitter – messages can either be sent privately to someone else or publicly to anyone who would like to follow your page (there’s no denying friend requests here). This get’s into a really interesting part of why Twitter has so much media buzz surrounding it recently. Ever since Politicians and Celebrities started using twitter, everything changed. Barack O’bama uses it as a way to mobilize people into political action. Senators punching keys on their blackberries during a presidential address is far cry from the first session of congress. What about celebrities like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher who use it to essentially controlling their press – it’s like they’re basically telling the press this what I’m doing and you the fans can determine if its newsworthy.
This mix of business tool and “lifestreaming” social networking really blurs the line between producer and consumer. It really throws an interesting kink into any simple, unidirectional communications model. In conclusion, the basic question this paper will attempt to answer (or at least crack into) this – who uses Twitter and why, and how does the design of the system itself play a role in determining the who and why. But I also want to allow for an in depth background of Twitter and help locate where it fits into the digital landscape (facebook, digg, texting, etc.)

Preliminary Sources

Boyd, Danah. www.zephoria.org/thoughts/bestof
(The articles “Why youth Heart Social Newtork Sites” and “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” will both be useful.)
(Looks like this will also be a fun exercise in learning how to site blogs and such.)

Deborah Micek and Warren Whitlock. Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online. Xeno Press, 2008.

Greenberg, Andy. “Why Celebrities Twitter?” www.forbes.com 3 March 2009.

Pogue, David. “Twitter? It’s What You Make It.” New York Times. 12 February 2009.

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2002.
(Chapter 7 talks about how p2p and reputation management services can be used to coordinate collective action. The opening case study of the “Shibuya Ephiphany” is an interesting examination of text messaging).

Slatalla, Michelle. “If You Can’t Let Go, Twitter.” New York Times. 14 February 2008.