Comments on: David Pogue on Twitter as a tool of cultural diplomacy

By: Rafael Estrella

Rafael Estrella — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:27:01 +0000

I would’t go that far as Pogue’s views on Twitter and cultural diplomacy. I agree with the role of Twitter or Blogs in forming a new yet unavoidably open diplomacy

By: Emerging Social Software SIG 09/24/2009 « Digital Humanities

Emerging Social Software SIG 09/24/2009 « Digital Humanities — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:32:44 +0000

[...] David Pogue on Twitter as a tool of cultural diplomacy » Nieman Journalism Lab [...]

By: TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter

TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:47:02 +0000

[...] David Pogue on Twitter as a tool of cultural diplomacy » Nieman Journalism Lab [...]

By: Christopher D. Sessums

Christopher D. Sessums — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:44:25 +0000

I enjoyed reading your take on Pogue’s comments.
Your reflections triggered a thought pointing back to Shirky’s thoughts on fame in Here Comes Everybody. Specifically, Shirky notes that the removal of technological limits have exposed a set of social/cognitive limits. So for a popular media figure like Oprah, there is no way she can maintain meaningful communication with even a fraction of her audience: she is the recipient of more attention than she can return in any medium. Shirky suggests that egalitarianism is only possible in small social systems. Scale alone can and will kill conversation.
In essense Twitter is both a conversational tool and a broadcast tool. While the difference between these two tactics is arbitrary, the difference between conversing and broadcasting is tremendous.

Your point about Twitter being a means to listen to, observe, and empathize with people across the globe is well taken. However, news organizations are still built on the idea of broadcasting and not conversing. Perhaps this will change someday, but the scale that news organizations operate limit this option. Perhaps the notion that each Web page is a latent community might be more along the lines of offering the connectivity readers and writers desire.

By: Gina Chen

Gina Chen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:16:02 +0000

You raise a good point. Sure, they could have a staffer do it — and probably do at times. But both Kutcher and Oprah made a bit point of saying they tweet themselves. Perhaps they are being untruthful. You’re right, we have no real way to tell.

But even if a staffer tweets for them, it’s still a more raw form of interaction than a TV show, in my mind.

By: Howard Weaver

Howard Weaver — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:52:15 +0000

Listen to yourself: “Regular folks can read tweets from actor Ashton Kutcher or Oprah Winfrey unfiltered by the staffers that generally separate the famed from the fans.”

Do David Pogue or Gina Chen honestly think they are reading unfiltered posts straight from Oprah?

Twitter’s a great service and doubtless will affect a lot of things. But curb your enthusiasm.