| Twitter - the online social media platform that allows users to communicate in short, 140-character bursts known as "tweets" - has become enormously popular since it's launch in the summer of 2006, recently surpassing 500 million users (Dugan). Twitter's appeal lies in it's immediacy - anyone can post at any time, from anywhere (provided they have a smart phone and Twitter app).;While the brevity of Twitter is one of it's most popular features, it can also lead to confusion. Due at least in part to the succinct nature of the platform, messages can get misconstrued or misunderstood, and information can prove to be incomplete or even entirely false.;Seeing as journalists strive for accuracy in reporting, Twitter creates an interesting dynamic. On one hand, the news media has learned over the past decade that they cannot ignore technology when it comes to breaking news - consumers will find the news online or on 24-hour news television long before they read it in a daily print newspaper. However, the information that makes it onto Twitter during a breaking news event - in this particular study's case, during severe tornado-producing storms in Dallas in the spring of 2012 - makes the job of the journalist that much more difficult.;This project will look at how news of these storms broke on Twitter - looking at both "official" Twitter feeds of local and national journalists and news organizations, as well as the feeds of Twitter users in Dallas at the time. I will attempt to track the movement of information, since considered "false," that was reported and passed on via Twitter and examine how the reporting of breaking news was handled during these storms. |
