Twitter: social communication in the Twitter Age –Dhiraj Murthy 2013

Book Review

Twitter has become one of the most popular social network over the years and it is such a bizarre that everyone is in depth of accessing the twitter and how its been used . It is such an important distinction to Facebook and other emergent social technologies . It allows people to use 140 character to send messages from their mobile internet devices . I found myself questioning about the first chapter of the book, is it worth the 140 character? The answers will continue on as you read this book .
In the first few chapter of Murthy’s book, he explicates more about what is twitter, how it contextualize and also theorizing twitter. He stated a lot of ponderous information and example of the superintendence twitter with people. There is a few debate about the barriers between public and private that seems to blurred us. Interactive multicasting that blurs us on twitter might make us question on the consumers will definitely make an interesting story.
This book is profound in its calibration and scope, yet Murthy is deliberating on todays provision of twitter. He highlights a lot of important issues such as privacy and the global village. Chapter four that explains about twitter and journalism makes me immersed in deep analytics through the end user who is required to capture and understand the real time flow of worldwide consciousness .
Besides, twitter is an ambient news environment and as a space for multiple journalisms. To all communication students, they will find this book more interesting than others cause of how Murthy himself provide insights topics that will tackle our minds with questions and debate. The book itself question the vicinity to which twitter revolution that he stated in Chapter six , modes of communication have historically been integrate. Twitter has in some ways reformulate existing cultural practices such as news consumption and job searching.
On contextualizing twitter, Mc Luhan’s notion of the global village(1962:31) argued that the process of new electronic independence recreates the world in the image of global village. In my opinion, he was referring to his prediction that globalized electronically reconcile communication framework was creating a level of inter-dependence which would enable all parts of the world to be connected in a sort of “global village”. Those who is confuse will each find the explanation to support the question. I would like to touch on my favorite part of the book which is twitter and homophily. There is no doubt that heterogeneous interactions would summed up the diversification of “circles of followers’ on twitter. These kind of users will tend to associate with like – minded people. It is interesting that there are so many kinds of people who has their own way of communicating with people on twitter and how they choose to communicate with. Their tweets when aggregated in some sort of particular combinations become important digital objects to their interlocutors. There is another topic that I am more concern about which is twitter and disasters on chapter five. Gathering news information about disasters is an act of following a fast – moving target. Disasters as Clarke (2005:137) observes, maybe destructive but are ultimately “prosaic” and as such helps glean “ important things” about how and why society works as it does for example , celebrity cultures are powerful and involve the ability to see the agenda regarding important events for beyond celebrity gossip . In my opinion, this somehow will create an awareness with everyone who follows the celebrity itself whether is about a campaign , event or even news but not knowing about the agenda behind it.
The real strength of this book comes, however , neither from the redefining of twitter nor the clear explanations of the importance of it and how its been used, but rather from Murthy’s perceptive and perceptions that are woven throughout the text. Murthy is quick to remind us of how good and bad of using twitter today that every topic in this book will presume it . It is this irony of individuals side by side that makes twitter particularly interesting object and analysis. It brings the diverse range of theory and case studies raised throughout the book to draw our attention and broad conclusions about social communication in the twitter age. Overall, this is a well- written book that weaves together the knowledge and complexities of twitter behind such actions. And while the main focus of the book is on the power of twitter that connects us together in many sorts of way as possible. This book draws to our attention that is not always on having the followers and the self promotion but more on how it changes people in either positive and negative way and shaped many aspects of our daily lives . This book also has sought to begin a critical conversation not just about twitter but also about importance of social media and “update cultures” they support that contains vast arrays of highly intermeshed networks which reveal a highly efficient awareness system which makes twitter more powerful and accessible. I will strongly suggest people to read this book because of how Murthy conveys readers with his analysis and help us on achieving the full understanding that we really need to know about the twitter age today.