The thing I found most interesting about this week's lecture was the way Steve used social media and blogging to extend his audience. As he said, Brisbane isn't exactly the media centre of Australia. Twitter and blogging sites have helped make up for this by exposing the world to his articles and opinions.
Twitter has been a huge break through in information sharing and journalism. Apart from it's ability to grow your audience, Twitter provides instantaneous information which can be used worldwide. Facebook already did this, but Twitter is more focused on text, and with only 140 characters stories can be read at a glance.
Twitter really is becoming a mass media outlet, with over 500 million accounts being used. Six months back I saw an article about a tweet Katy Perry made in which she 'un-followed' her ex husband Russell Brand after their divorce. The article stated that this act made the separation official! (as if the divorce wasn't official enough). I understand news being reported on Twitter... but when Twitter activity is deemed news I think thats going a bit far.
Another topic mentioned by Molks was the censorship of information and several high profile websites by the Chinese government, among others. Sites such as YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter have been banned in the People's Republic of China. The article below by the NY Times discusses the internet censorship in China. I believe since its release Twitter has been un-blocked by the government, though tweets mentioning banned material are blocked from being viewed in China.
Chinese Censorship: NT Times
The whole point of social media is to be able to share and connect with other people. It's unfair for a government to withhold information created by the people, from the people.
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