In an article titled “Blogging is so Yesterday”, Zahid (2010) addresses on how microblogging has been influential to politicians in Malaysia. The 62-year-old PKR de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has been actively tweeting as a way to counter what has been described as the ruling coalition’s alleged attempt to demonize him through government-linked media. The keywords are mobility and speed. Unlike blogs, Twitter’s emphasis on short status updates over often personal journals has made it more attractive.
A microblogging site like Twitter allows political leaders send short instant updates, ideas and thoughts on current affairs instead of long personal journals. A study showed 3G mobile user numbers are rising sharply. From 3 million in 1999, the numbers have skyrocketed to 28.9 million up to last year and are still growing, which makes applications like Twitter, designed specifically for mobile-phone users, the preferred option for information. With Twitter, you get snippets of information but blogs give you in-depth information. Anwar Ibrahim said that information from Twitter will reach voters first instead of blogs which makes the microblogging service the primary arena to win public opinion.
Not just in Malaysia, according to BBC (2008), blogging played a key role in the 2008 presidential elections. Obama launched a blog to win support of the the largest state of Florida which was of Jewish majority and most citizens were against him. But with his campaign and promises through blogging, he won the votes by a 60% margin.
According to Crossley (2010), Twitter is used by friends and businesses alike, with most users having the tool running as they work or surf the internet to keep in touch. People share links to interesting articles they’ve read, what they’ve eaten for lunch, discuss politics and plan their social lives on the popular microblogging tool. Although this may sound incredibly trivial, Brewer (2010) argues that businesses are now using Twitter for serious networking and the service has been used for breaking news - the recent China earthquakes were very quickly ‘Tweeted’ to the outside world by Twitter users in the region well ahead of the major news agencies.
References:
1. BBC 2010, Obama’s historic win in US election, BBC.com, viewed June 12th 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7709978.stm
2. Brewer, D 2010, Editorial Ethics for Twitter Journalists, Media Helping Media, viewed June 12th 2010
http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/social-networking/401-editorial-ethics-for-twitter-journalists
3. Crossley, J 2010, Ethics on Twitter, Net Registry, viewed June 12th 2010
http://www.netregistry.com.au/news/articles/470/1/Ethics-on-Twitter/Page1.html
4. Zahid, J 2010, Blogging is so yesterday, politicians turn to Twitter, The Malaysian Insider, viewed June 12th 2010
http://m.themalaysianinsider.com/articles_headlines.php?id=malaysia/52749-blogging-is-so-yesterday-politicians-turn-to-twitter
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