Six Months Ago NPR Left Twitter. The Effects Have Been Negligible
October 12, 2023 10:24 PM Subscribe
The full article isn't really summarized accurately by the subhead (which became the pull quote.) In fact, the actual quote in the article, when you get to that point, starts with the caveat There’s one view of these numbers . . ..
There's also discussion about non-rating benefits that being on Twitter had, for both the news organization and individual journalists. And NPR compensated by leaving Twitter by working more on SEO and spending time on Threads (which surprises me, but I guess that's a place to chase a mass audience?)
It also points out non-rating benefits to leaving Twitter: The article claims moving to Threads has reduced staff burnout, partly because less time is spent there. But also because reception on Twitter was contrarian and snarky.
I think it was a no-brainer to leave when they did, and they could have left a lot sooner. But the article isn't saying they should never have been there in the first place.
posted by mark k at 11:17 PM on October 12, 2023 [10 favorites]
There's also discussion about non-rating benefits that being on Twitter had, for both the news organization and individual journalists. And NPR compensated by leaving Twitter by working more on SEO and spending time on Threads (which surprises me, but I guess that's a place to chase a mass audience?)
It also points out non-rating benefits to leaving Twitter: The article claims moving to Threads has reduced staff burnout, partly because less time is spent there. But also because reception on Twitter was contrarian and snarky.
I think it was a no-brainer to leave when they did, and they could have left a lot sooner. But the article isn't saying they should never have been there in the first place.
posted by mark k at 11:17 PM on October 12, 2023 [10 favorites]
People use Threads? That is a surprise.
posted by Artw at 11:26 PM on October 12, 2023 [21 favorites]
posted by Artw at 11:26 PM on October 12, 2023 [21 favorites]
KCUR set up a live blog and focused on posting to other social networks.
I like the news source having a live blog and then use metafilter live blogging the live blog.
I know that sounds jingly. But I prefer the news source to let us be social. There is a certain amount of "Stay In Your Lane"-ism here from me. But perhaps a social third space might be good to foster away from all the estates.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 11:36 PM on October 12, 2023
I like the news source having a live blog and then use metafilter live blogging the live blog.
I know that sounds jingly. But I prefer the news source to let us be social. There is a certain amount of "Stay In Your Lane"-ism here from me. But perhaps a social third space might be good to foster away from all the estates.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 11:36 PM on October 12, 2023
The reality is that, for all the very real problems with centrism and both-sidesism that NPR has, its brand and reputation are stronger than Elon Musk's. Twitter benefitted from NPR, not the other way around. That's the mistake billionaires make: that they think they are necessary, and that their decisions must flow from that calculus.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:51 PM on October 12, 2023 [94 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:51 PM on October 12, 2023 [94 favorites]
Tangentially-related, but after another blow-up on Slack at work, I've enabled email notifications of @s and walked away. It's only been two and a half days, but that simmering anxiety is almost gone. The frantic, time-confetti existence where attention is split more ways than can be sustained is fading.
Social media-esque FOMO stoked by the near-immediate nature of a medium like Xitter or Slack is, at best, unhealthy. More likely it's a fictional narrative we tell ourselves to make us feel more important. Or something. Removing the incessant source of, often self-inflicted, interruptions is, as NPR appear to have noticed, a massive stress relief.
Like NPR, I'm investing my time in better things. (Although some may argue that Confluence doesn't meet that definition.) Slack, like Xitter, has made changes in the pursuit of profit that have greatly reduced the value of it as a resource. At a certain point you realise you're spending all your time making scratches in the sand without noticing each wave behind you that's wiping out any trace of your work.
posted by krisjohn at 12:59 AM on October 13, 2023 [17 favorites]
Social media-esque FOMO stoked by the near-immediate nature of a medium like Xitter or Slack is, at best, unhealthy. More likely it's a fictional narrative we tell ourselves to make us feel more important. Or something. Removing the incessant source of, often self-inflicted, interruptions is, as NPR appear to have noticed, a massive stress relief.
Like NPR, I'm investing my time in better things. (Although some may argue that Confluence doesn't meet that definition.) Slack, like Xitter, has made changes in the pursuit of profit that have greatly reduced the value of it as a resource. At a certain point you realise you're spending all your time making scratches in the sand without noticing each wave behind you that's wiping out any trace of your work.
posted by krisjohn at 12:59 AM on October 13, 2023 [17 favorites]
There's a real disadvantage in being associated with Twitter now. When people share Twitter links with me saying "look at this" I am now wondering what is wrong with them. And half the time the links don't work.
posted by Nelson at 2:22 AM on October 13, 2023 [60 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 2:22 AM on October 13, 2023 [60 favorites]
As an academic we had to bake twitter into our contractually obligated communications strategies. I would have to say that being in a sort of specialist area of twitter (in this case energy-twitter) was actually pretty useful, you could build a following, see new document releases more easily along with links to analysis, and without much in the way of abuse (like say my climatologist colleagues get). It was also useful in announcing outputs to a specialist audience. I am involved in 5 accounts, with somewhat different audiences and the experience was largely useful. However, since Musk started fannying around with the preferences our interactions have dropped off a log and makes it much less useful. I can see me discontinuing most of them as projects terminate. We've seen this sort of thing before, we were able to make a case against a professional presence on facebook some time ago for example. LinkedIn meanwhile has become more useful in the same period, with increasingly active and engaged followers I would say.
posted by biffa at 4:24 AM on October 13, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by biffa at 4:24 AM on October 13, 2023 [10 favorites]
The number of times I've run into people twitter users who insist that being on twitter is essential and doing anything else is social and commercial suicide. It's just not true, at least for the vast majority of people. It's certainly not true for people in the sorts of academia or jobs I'm talking to - a minor sociology journal isn't getting anything meaningful out of being on twitter.
This is a bit of devil's advocate in me talking, and I admit that - but I think this claim depends on what these people are using Twitter FOR.
For a news source to spread the news about things THEY'VE published? Yeah, I would buy the "this isn't worth it" claim. But for journalists to HEAR about things that OTHER people are doing, so they can get news tips?....I think that's not quite so useless. It's my understanding that a lot of the grass-roots organizing and the initial news about the Arab Spring came about because of Twitter.
That said - that was Twitter from 2011, not Twitter of today. And any social media outlet could give the same kind of platform to eyewitness accounts and let news outlets follow up with them directly. But - yeah, no, I don't think that the claims of "being on twitter is essential" were meant to be about news outlets being publishing platforms in the first place.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:52 AM on October 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
This is a bit of devil's advocate in me talking, and I admit that - but I think this claim depends on what these people are using Twitter FOR.
For a news source to spread the news about things THEY'VE published? Yeah, I would buy the "this isn't worth it" claim. But for journalists to HEAR about things that OTHER people are doing, so they can get news tips?....I think that's not quite so useless. It's my understanding that a lot of the grass-roots organizing and the initial news about the Arab Spring came about because of Twitter.
That said - that was Twitter from 2011, not Twitter of today. And any social media outlet could give the same kind of platform to eyewitness accounts and let news outlets follow up with them directly. But - yeah, no, I don't think that the claims of "being on twitter is essential" were meant to be about news outlets being publishing platforms in the first place.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:52 AM on October 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
It also points out non-rating benefits to leaving Twitter: ... But also because reception on Twitter was contrarian and snarky.
As it should be, considering the unnecessary credulity NPR gives to bogus Republican talking points and their feebleness at pushing back on same.
posted by Gelatin at 4:59 AM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
As it should be, considering the unnecessary credulity NPR gives to bogus Republican talking points and their feebleness at pushing back on same.
posted by Gelatin at 4:59 AM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
I miss the Twitter of yore. I am a text-centric guy. I would rather slog through a big doc rsther than watch a 5min youtube unless the issue is an appliance teardown. I am not tiktok’s audience. There were a number of accounts I trusted and I felt I got info there that I wouldnt get anywhere else, not having cable and, yes, quitting NPR when I heard John Yoo (GWB era counsel when Guantanamo etc was in full swing) on there talking about executive limits, as if he was the adult I needed to take direction from!!!
I would guess the losing dynamic of Xitter (thanks @krisjohn!) is that most of the snark and indeed most engagement that repels people from large popular accounts are from non-consumers of that brand. Extra energy for some accounts was wasted energy.
also agree that LinkedIn is more important now for work related comms.
posted by drowsy at 5:32 AM on October 13, 2023 [12 favorites]
I would guess the losing dynamic of Xitter (thanks @krisjohn!) is that most of the snark and indeed most engagement that repels people from large popular accounts are from non-consumers of that brand. Extra energy for some accounts was wasted energy.
also agree that LinkedIn is more important now for work related comms.
posted by drowsy at 5:32 AM on October 13, 2023 [12 favorites]
FRONTLINE just released a documentary about Musk and Twitter. Some of it details his free speech hypocrisy, and his willingness to do what foreign governments ask him to do against free speech.
posted by Brian B. at 5:33 AM on October 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by Brian B. at 5:33 AM on October 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
FWIW, although not mentioned in the FPP, NPR seems to have moved to Mastodon. I keep trying to figure out why no one ever mentions the platform in these sorts of articles, it’s almost as if there’s a concerted effort to make it fail so everyone writing about social media agrees to not mention it.
Anyway, if “following news source in real time” is what you want from a platform, you can do that there, with no ads and far less fascists. A lot of authors I follow there (after initially following on Twitter, before I jumped ship) have either immediately dropped Twitter after the Musk takeover, as I did, or kept their account active to follow replies and DMs, but most if not all have gradually announced “yeah I’m not engaging in that mess any more, it’s not worth it”. Which, given that authors only make money when people know about and buy their new books, seems pretty telling.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:47 AM on October 13, 2023 [8 favorites]
Anyway, if “following news source in real time” is what you want from a platform, you can do that there, with no ads and far less fascists. A lot of authors I follow there (after initially following on Twitter, before I jumped ship) have either immediately dropped Twitter after the Musk takeover, as I did, or kept their account active to follow replies and DMs, but most if not all have gradually announced “yeah I’m not engaging in that mess any more, it’s not worth it”. Which, given that authors only make money when people know about and buy their new books, seems pretty telling.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:47 AM on October 13, 2023 [8 favorites]
I’ve been off Twitter for about six months but got on again with a new account to follow a couple account about three weeks ago and oh my god what a cesspool. With a new account the first accounts it recommended were Musk, Kari Lake and Trump. It was just a time line of grievance and conspiracy. I had to follow a bunch of accounts to get something less horrible. Never mind using the “for you” tab and dear jebus never read comments. The crazy people have been emboldened and of current world events have taught us anything it’s that X is just a pile of disinformation.
I really prefer Post and wish more of the accounts I enjoy would move over there.
posted by misterpatrick at 5:53 AM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I really prefer Post and wish more of the accounts I enjoy would move over there.
posted by misterpatrick at 5:53 AM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
Twitter remains a vital portal into local politics in Philadelphia. And Slack is just, like, AIM Instant Messenger or IRC or Skype Chat or whatever else. At least for work. It's a communication tool, nothing more, nothing less.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:59 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:59 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm willing to bet the effects on their media people's mental health have been anything but negligible.
posted by mhoye at 6:08 AM on October 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 6:08 AM on October 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I quit Twitter when Musk took over. I hadn't used it regularly for a decade before that, though.
I was recently moved to write to a news site I like, Talking Points Memo, which frequently embeds Twitter threads, to encourage them to stop relying on Twitter. I know it's still where a lot of current-events talk happens—EmpressCallipygos is right about that—so for a news site, quitting it entirely would be tough.
But there's a philosophical mismatch between a liberal website like TPM and the shitshow that Twitter has become. There's also the practical problem that when TPM links to a thread on Twitter, I can't read it, though I can read it through Thread Reader (which I mentioned to TPM). So far, no response, and they are still embedding Twitter posts.
posted by adamrice at 6:10 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I was recently moved to write to a news site I like, Talking Points Memo, which frequently embeds Twitter threads, to encourage them to stop relying on Twitter. I know it's still where a lot of current-events talk happens—EmpressCallipygos is right about that—so for a news site, quitting it entirely would be tough.
But there's a philosophical mismatch between a liberal website like TPM and the shitshow that Twitter has become. There's also the practical problem that when TPM links to a thread on Twitter, I can't read it, though I can read it through Thread Reader (which I mentioned to TPM). So far, no response, and they are still embedding Twitter posts.
posted by adamrice at 6:10 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think a few years from now we are going to find out that we grossly overvalued the time that we are on the can or putting off going to sleep and trying to dissociate from an otherwise stressful existence
posted by openhearted at 6:10 AM on October 13, 2023 [15 favorites]
posted by openhearted at 6:10 AM on October 13, 2023 [15 favorites]
I use twitter regularly, but it's highly curated. I generally block ads, not people, because the people who need blocking don't tend to fall over onto my timeline. Instead, I regularly interact with a fan community I've engaged with for years, and while some of those members have disappeared, the experience generally remains the same. That said, it feels like Twitter is just a month away from suddenly imploding or being tweaked in some ridiculous manner by Musky to make unuseable for all but his most fervent followers.
I flirted with quite the number of other options, but have settled generally on Blue Sky. The interface isn't quite the same, but at least it's chronological which Threads can't claim. I see authors and bloggers on Blue Sky often note that while their follower count isn't nearly as big as on Twitter, they get the same level or sometimes more engagement because of the difference in algorithms and so on.
posted by Atreides at 6:35 AM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I flirted with quite the number of other options, but have settled generally on Blue Sky. The interface isn't quite the same, but at least it's chronological which Threads can't claim. I see authors and bloggers on Blue Sky often note that while their follower count isn't nearly as big as on Twitter, they get the same level or sometimes more engagement because of the difference in algorithms and so on.
posted by Atreides at 6:35 AM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
It honestly blows my mind that any decent person still uses that site.
If there was a laundromat in my neighborhood that I’d been using for years and it was bought by nazis, I’d stop going.
Period.
None of this ‘well my clothes get super clean’ or ‘my other neighbors still go there’ or ‘but it’s too hard to wash my clothes by hand”.
posted by chronkite at 6:38 AM on October 13, 2023 [40 favorites]
If there was a laundromat in my neighborhood that I’d been using for years and it was bought by nazis, I’d stop going.
Period.
None of this ‘well my clothes get super clean’ or ‘my other neighbors still go there’ or ‘but it’s too hard to wash my clothes by hand”.
posted by chronkite at 6:38 AM on October 13, 2023 [40 favorites]
Which, given that authors only make money when people know about and buy their new books, seems pretty telling.
Several author friends and friends at big media outlets have recently been told not to bother using Twitter to drive engagement anymore, because it simply doesn't work. People just will not see you unless you're Favored by the Algorithm, which basically means Musk and that menswear guy.
However, Twitter was absolutely worth the effort for them in the past, pre-Musk fuckery. They have numbers on this and it's a steady, then steep, decline once Musk starts screwing everything up. It's not inherently useless, it's been made useless.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:47 AM on October 13, 2023 [19 favorites]
Several author friends and friends at big media outlets have recently been told not to bother using Twitter to drive engagement anymore, because it simply doesn't work. People just will not see you unless you're Favored by the Algorithm, which basically means Musk and that menswear guy.
However, Twitter was absolutely worth the effort for them in the past, pre-Musk fuckery. They have numbers on this and it's a steady, then steep, decline once Musk starts screwing everything up. It's not inherently useless, it's been made useless.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:47 AM on October 13, 2023 [19 favorites]
Not directed at anyone in particular here, but note that the "but I block/report all the ads I see so I'm not really supporting Musk" rationale for staying is apparently no longer viable, if it ever was: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked.
posted by nobody at 6:48 AM on October 13, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by nobody at 6:48 AM on October 13, 2023 [7 favorites]
I have a good friend that's been a journalist with a major newspaper for 30+ years. He's told me that the social media platform that means far, far more than Twitter for views/reader engagement/etc. is vanilla Facebook. That platform is obviously an entirely other flaming dumpster fire, but his point is that Twitter basically doesn't matter at all for journalism.
It does, however, continue to be a platform that journos talk between each other on, so that's where they get value. They should probably all move to Mastodon but just try to explain that tech to a bunch of non-techies.
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:58 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
It does, however, continue to be a platform that journos talk between each other on, so that's where they get value. They should probably all move to Mastodon but just try to explain that tech to a bunch of non-techies.
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:58 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Xitter
That is an excellent name, particularly since where I live X is pronounced "sh".
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:07 AM on October 13, 2023 [16 favorites]
That is an excellent name, particularly since where I live X is pronounced "sh".
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:07 AM on October 13, 2023 [16 favorites]
And NPR compensated by leaving Twitter by working more on SEO and spending time on Threads.
For me that doesn't contradict the basic thesis that there was no net cost to leaving Twitter. In fact it appears they are using less resources to achieve the same results.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:11 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
For me that doesn't contradict the basic thesis that there was no net cost to leaving Twitter. In fact it appears they are using less resources to achieve the same results.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:11 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
This has been an ongoing subject on the podcast Comic Lab. Dave Kellet and Brad Guigar are both veteran webcomics producers and well used to online outreach and marketing. Both agree that X-Twitter is largely useless, although they have also noted of late that engagement on all social media platforms is down. Enshittification, it seems, rules the day.
posted by Eikonaut at 8:55 AM on October 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Eikonaut at 8:55 AM on October 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
As an academic we had to bake twitter into our contractually obligated communications strategies...LinkedIn meanwhile has become more useful in the same period, with increasingly active and engaged followers I would say.
I work in an academic research lab, and our social media was dead all summer awaiting a new intern. New intern reports that incoming class of master's students doesn't use (or reveal) any social media except LinkedIn. We've used Twitter mostly to log our publications and conference attendance for those who are interested in our work, not so much for banter. So LinkedIn probably makes more sense anyways.
posted by bendybendy at 9:41 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I work in an academic research lab, and our social media was dead all summer awaiting a new intern. New intern reports that incoming class of master's students doesn't use (or reveal) any social media except LinkedIn. We've used Twitter mostly to log our publications and conference attendance for those who are interested in our work, not so much for banter. So LinkedIn probably makes more sense anyways.
posted by bendybendy at 9:41 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm so old i don't know if I'm ahead of the game or behind. NPR's continued presence on Xitter simply confirmed why I had given up on them long ago (except for Tiny Desk Concerts).
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:42 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:42 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
From my perspective as a news consumer (reader), it seemed to me that journalists etc. took to twitter as an easy source of free quotable material, without having to call anybody or do any research. Or, even a basis to write a whole set of stories around. Remember when every day half the news was just what Trump said on Twitter? I really hope to see the quality of the news go up over time as they rely on it a bit less.
posted by thefool at 9:46 AM on October 13, 2023 [25 favorites]
posted by thefool at 9:46 AM on October 13, 2023 [25 favorites]
THIS, thefool. Almost every newspaper article I read in my beloved Boston Globe and others is just a bunch of Twitter quotes, including ones that have been since removed so there's an error message in the story. I guess it was helpful since most newspapers have been gutted, but it did everyone no favors.
posted by Melismata at 10:00 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 10:00 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
engagement on all social media platforms is down.
Post lockdowns, they really had nowhere to go but down.
posted by StarkRoads at 11:19 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Post lockdowns, they really had nowhere to go but down.
posted by StarkRoads at 11:19 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
NPR's continued presence on Xitter simply confirmed why I had given up on them long ago (except for Tiny Desk Concerts).
I'm not sure what you mean by this. As the headline states, NPR left Twitter six months ago.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:40 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure what you mean by this. As the headline states, NPR left Twitter six months ago.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:40 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
From my perspective as a news consumer (reader), it seemed to me that journalists etc. took to twitter as an easy source of free quotable material, without having to call anybody or do any research. Or, even a basis to write a whole set of stories around.
I hate this kind of news story, but it is impossible to judge this behavior without looking at the economics of modern journalism. Even at relatively large news sites like MSNBC people they've hired are expected to produce a story a day. There's just not the funds to support someone doing less. And of course news markets are far less local. So writers who might have been phoning up school board members and attending city council meetings in person are grabbing that sort of quote from Twitter.
It's why the handful of remaining outlets doing real shoe leather reporting--ProPublica but also the WP, WSJ and much derided NYT are so important.
I really hope to see the quality of the news go up over time as they rely on it a bit less.
I can promise you, it won't, for the reasons above. The problem was not that reporters are being lazy, it's that societally there aren't resources available for anything better.
posted by mark k at 11:41 AM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
I hate this kind of news story, but it is impossible to judge this behavior without looking at the economics of modern journalism. Even at relatively large news sites like MSNBC people they've hired are expected to produce a story a day. There's just not the funds to support someone doing less. And of course news markets are far less local. So writers who might have been phoning up school board members and attending city council meetings in person are grabbing that sort of quote from Twitter.
It's why the handful of remaining outlets doing real shoe leather reporting--ProPublica but also the WP, WSJ and much derided NYT are so important.
I really hope to see the quality of the news go up over time as they rely on it a bit less.
I can promise you, it won't, for the reasons above. The problem was not that reporters are being lazy, it's that societally there aren't resources available for anything better.
posted by mark k at 11:41 AM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
I'm so old i don't know if I'm ahead of the game or behind.
Behind. NPR is not on Twitter.
posted by pracowity at 11:54 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Behind. NPR is not on Twitter.
posted by pracowity at 11:54 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese: "Several author friends and friends at big media outlets have recently been told not to bother using Twitter to drive engagement anymore, because it simply doesn't work. People just will not see you unless you're Favored by the Algorithm, which basically means Musk and that menswear guy. "
Yeah well the flipside is that Mastodon won't show you anything you didn't go looking for, so to contact existing fans it's great, but it does make it hard for an author to find NEW fans. There's a whole lot of author A promoting author B's posts, which has helped me find good recommendations on others to follow, but yeah the recommendation algorithm just doesn't exist on Masto, for better or for worse.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:03 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah well the flipside is that Mastodon won't show you anything you didn't go looking for, so to contact existing fans it's great, but it does make it hard for an author to find NEW fans. There's a whole lot of author A promoting author B's posts, which has helped me find good recommendations on others to follow, but yeah the recommendation algorithm just doesn't exist on Masto, for better or for worse.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:03 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Several comments deleted. Can we stop the Nazi derail please?
posted by loup (staff) at 12:35 PM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by loup (staff) at 12:35 PM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
Theoretically Mastodons new sear h capabilities should help a lot, haven’t really seen it making much of a difference yet though, so perhaps it needs wider adoption.
posted by Artw at 12:38 PM on October 13, 2023
posted by Artw at 12:38 PM on October 13, 2023
Twitter remains a vital portal into local politics in Philadelphia.
New Orleans as well, for discourse and opinionated analysis that you would miss if you didn't look at Twitter, like knowledgeable local people diving into campaign finance and real estate records to discuss candidates.
Twitter is also still important for journalists looking for freelance work, since a lot of editors post there when they're actively looking for new contributors and pitches. I think some of this is gradually migrating to LinkedIn, but if you look at any of the various email newsletters that round up freelance journalism opportunities, it's noticeable that a lot of what they're sharing is links to tweets.
posted by smelendez at 1:40 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
New Orleans as well, for discourse and opinionated analysis that you would miss if you didn't look at Twitter, like knowledgeable local people diving into campaign finance and real estate records to discuss candidates.
Twitter is also still important for journalists looking for freelance work, since a lot of editors post there when they're actively looking for new contributors and pitches. I think some of this is gradually migrating to LinkedIn, but if you look at any of the various email newsletters that round up freelance journalism opportunities, it's noticeable that a lot of what they're sharing is links to tweets.
posted by smelendez at 1:40 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’m not a Twitter fan and never have been, but I will point out that:
It was never a good source of traffic and NPR knew that. That said, if you actually read the article rather than just crowing that you’re right, you’ll see “ Even though the station itself wasn’t posting to Twitter, Rosenberg says the story found an audience anyway because very engaged local Twitter users shared the piece with their networks. And while the station informed these users through its website, it also reached new users on Instagram, where Rosenberg says KCUR has “tripled down” its engagement efforts.” - so NPR isn’t doing the work but engaged users on Twitter are.
The Threads piece is really interesting. If I had to hazard a guess, I would guess that has to do with the NPR demographic. I’ll also say though, that in most of my jobs that involved social media, going from X posts a day to X/3 - less content, more planning - almost always delivered better results, so it doesn’t surprise me.
In my own career in the distant past, Twitter was great for discovering new writers and points of view, as well as getting a read on background issues. It also was a way to connect with readers and learn from them, although not to get them to click.
Personally, my kid’s school board, transit system, emergency ops, and nuclear power plant are still communicating on Twitter so there I will remain. I’m less concerned about media than that kind of local, fast, relevant communication.
posted by warriorqueen at 2:08 PM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
It was never a good source of traffic and NPR knew that. That said, if you actually read the article rather than just crowing that you’re right, you’ll see “ Even though the station itself wasn’t posting to Twitter, Rosenberg says the story found an audience anyway because very engaged local Twitter users shared the piece with their networks. And while the station informed these users through its website, it also reached new users on Instagram, where Rosenberg says KCUR has “tripled down” its engagement efforts.” - so NPR isn’t doing the work but engaged users on Twitter are.
The Threads piece is really interesting. If I had to hazard a guess, I would guess that has to do with the NPR demographic. I’ll also say though, that in most of my jobs that involved social media, going from X posts a day to X/3 - less content, more planning - almost always delivered better results, so it doesn’t surprise me.
In my own career in the distant past, Twitter was great for discovering new writers and points of view, as well as getting a read on background issues. It also was a way to connect with readers and learn from them, although not to get them to click.
Personally, my kid’s school board, transit system, emergency ops, and nuclear power plant are still communicating on Twitter so there I will remain. I’m less concerned about media than that kind of local, fast, relevant communication.
posted by warriorqueen at 2:08 PM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Rosenberg says the story found an audience anyway because very engaged local Twitter users shared the piece with their networks.
Sorry, but does that not mean that twitter was important to NPR's reach, at least for that event?
posted by vincebowdren at 2:11 PM on October 13, 2023
Sorry, but does that not mean that twitter was important to NPR's reach, at least for that event?
posted by vincebowdren at 2:11 PM on October 13, 2023
My comment above was an independent response to the article, not to warriorqueen's excellent post. Just similar timing.
posted by vincebowdren at 2:13 PM on October 13, 2023
posted by vincebowdren at 2:13 PM on October 13, 2023
^^^(see mods, we can play nice)
posted by elkevelvet at 2:40 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by elkevelvet at 2:40 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don't think things like NPR ever appealed to me on Twitter, as I'd rather just go to their webpage directly to see articles, rather then sift through their pile of Twitter posts for the one or two articles I'd be interested in.
I think the type of content on Twitter that has yet to be replicated that's most important to me are the government announcements--the NWS tornado warning graphics are great and they haven't posted those anywhere else. The USCPSC posts quick recall notices--something I owned had a recall and I think I wouldn't have known if it weren't for their Recall Thursday.
I dream of a .gov mastodon which is just these sorts of informative broadcasts, and maybe someday it'll happen.
posted by that girl at 2:49 PM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I think the type of content on Twitter that has yet to be replicated that's most important to me are the government announcements--the NWS tornado warning graphics are great and they haven't posted those anywhere else. The USCPSC posts quick recall notices--something I owned had a recall and I think I wouldn't have known if it weren't for their Recall Thursday.
I dream of a .gov mastodon which is just these sorts of informative broadcasts, and maybe someday it'll happen.
posted by that girl at 2:49 PM on October 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
Even when twitter wasn't a transphobe, racist shithole, I stil hated journalists who just embedded a bunch of tweets instead of doing, you know, journalism.
Good riddance to the whole shitty site.
posted by signal at 8:21 PM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
Good riddance to the whole shitty site.
posted by signal at 8:21 PM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
Several Netherlands government offices have their own mastodon servers, that girl. For instance the top level social.overheid.nl and some local ones like social.amsterdam.nl for the city level gemeente.
posted by autopilot at 1:15 AM on October 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by autopilot at 1:15 AM on October 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
FRONTLINE just released a documentary about Musk and Twitter. Some of it details his free speech hypocrisy, and his willingness to do what foreign governments ask him to do against free speech.
posted by Brian B. at 5:33 AM on October 13
Thanks for the link. This is a super interesting documentary with interviews with a lot of the main players at Twitter 1.0. The interviewer was generally good but I thought he was particularly hard on Yoel Roth - former head of Safety at Twitter - not that Yoel Roth can't take care of himself, he's very articulate and good at defending himself in his Twitter role (particularly given what he has been subjected to by MAGA and the media). There is a section where they discuss the interaction between government entities (like FBI) and Twitter that was particularly interesting - and it brought to mind things like Watergate/The Pentagon Papers. It was in the era that I first learned that newspapers had meetings with the government - publications like WaPo had close conversations with the government about possible articles, listened to concerns but made their own judgements. I didn't see how this was different than what Twitter had done (putting aside the issue of whether this kind of cross talk is appropriate). And the interviewer was particularly soft on Jim Jordan. He asked Jordan a question about being intimately involved in the insurrection and let Jordan just laugh and not answer the question. (derail - Jordan is incredibly creepy). It's worth watching.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:56 AM on October 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Brian B. at 5:33 AM on October 13
Thanks for the link. This is a super interesting documentary with interviews with a lot of the main players at Twitter 1.0. The interviewer was generally good but I thought he was particularly hard on Yoel Roth - former head of Safety at Twitter - not that Yoel Roth can't take care of himself, he's very articulate and good at defending himself in his Twitter role (particularly given what he has been subjected to by MAGA and the media). There is a section where they discuss the interaction between government entities (like FBI) and Twitter that was particularly interesting - and it brought to mind things like Watergate/The Pentagon Papers. It was in the era that I first learned that newspapers had meetings with the government - publications like WaPo had close conversations with the government about possible articles, listened to concerns but made their own judgements. I didn't see how this was different than what Twitter had done (putting aside the issue of whether this kind of cross talk is appropriate). And the interviewer was particularly soft on Jim Jordan. He asked Jordan a question about being intimately involved in the insurrection and let Jordan just laugh and not answer the question. (derail - Jordan is incredibly creepy). It's worth watching.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:56 AM on October 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's worth watching.
Agreed, and I had no idea Musk now has a policy of foreign government censorship upon request, explicitly stated, to keep his enterprise going abroad.
posted by Brian B. at 8:14 AM on October 14, 2023
Agreed, and I had no idea Musk now has a policy of foreign government censorship upon request, explicitly stated, to keep his enterprise going abroad.
posted by Brian B. at 8:14 AM on October 14, 2023
I keep trying to figure out why no one ever mentions the platform in these sorts of articles, it’s almost as if there’s a concerted effort to make it fail so everyone writing about social media agrees to not mention it.
There's no need to resort to conspiracy here*; there are a number of very compelling reasons why Mastodon isn't in this conversation, from it being tiny, too difficult for regular people to use, generally unsuitable for engagement or virality (and thus not particularly useful for a media company), and the moral hazard around investing in a place where you're never all that far from CSAM if someone wanted to make it happen.
* and also in general - as someone who's had some experience with an actual conspiracy, there's usually a real answer that involves whoever is grasping for conspiracies just being fundamentally wrong about certainly closely-held assumptions
posted by Merus at 4:37 AM on October 16, 2023
There's no need to resort to conspiracy here*; there are a number of very compelling reasons why Mastodon isn't in this conversation, from it being tiny, too difficult for regular people to use, generally unsuitable for engagement or virality (and thus not particularly useful for a media company), and the moral hazard around investing in a place where you're never all that far from CSAM if someone wanted to make it happen.
* and also in general - as someone who's had some experience with an actual conspiracy, there's usually a real answer that involves whoever is grasping for conspiracies just being fundamentally wrong about certainly closely-held assumptions
posted by Merus at 4:37 AM on October 16, 2023
It honestly blows my mind that any decent person still uses that site.
If there was a laundromat in my neighborhood that I’d been using for years and it was bought by nazis, I’d stop going.
I'm not paying Twitter for a service, I'm almost certainly costing it money because I block dumb shit extensively and am not a paying subscriber. Their ad revenue is marginal, at best -- and unlikely to change in the near future.
Most of the Internet is owned by assholes. As such, I will still use Twitter as long as it keeps me in contact with certain people who are not accessible elsewhere. (I have offered invite codes to BlueSky, they are not interested and I can't make them move.)
posted by Dark Messiah at 10:14 AM on October 16, 2023
If there was a laundromat in my neighborhood that I’d been using for years and it was bought by nazis, I’d stop going.
I'm not paying Twitter for a service, I'm almost certainly costing it money because I block dumb shit extensively and am not a paying subscriber. Their ad revenue is marginal, at best -- and unlikely to change in the near future.
Most of the Internet is owned by assholes. As such, I will still use Twitter as long as it keeps me in contact with certain people who are not accessible elsewhere. (I have offered invite codes to BlueSky, they are not interested and I can't make them move.)
posted by Dark Messiah at 10:14 AM on October 16, 2023
Twitter Is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood
posted by Artw at 11:55 AM on October 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 11:55 AM on October 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
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peopletwitter users who insist that being on twitter is essential and doing anything else is social and commercial suicide. It's just not true, at least for the vast majority of people. It's certainly not true for people in the sorts of academia or jobs I'm talking to - a minor sociology journal isn't getting anything meaningful out of being on twitter. But ask the people whose job it is to manage the twitter presence, or the people desperate to justify their personal ever-deeper, ever more mentally taxing involvement with the site, and you get a very different take.posted by Dysk at 10:45 PM on October 12, 2023 [35 favorites]