Twitter is not a social network, but instead is a news service that should be portrayed as a public source of information, a new study from Korea reveals.
In a study presented at the International World Wide Web Conference, the researchers found that people are using Twitter to allow communications to reach a wide range of people, and fits into the same category of media as newspapers and magazines.
Thus, the researchers suggested Twitter is not a social network, like Facebook or MySpace, but a source of current events.
The researchers also said that Twitter followers sign up to follow other tweets, with no other interactions required, whereas Facebook operates as a detailed network where all types of information and content can be shared.
Additionally, the researchers found Twitter users talk more about current events, which make up more than 80% of discussions on any given day. Moreover, about 54% of tweets are “headline news”.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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