# Digital Media Concepts/Breaking News on Twitter

The social networking app, Twitter, has made it possible for its more than 330 million global users to access crucial breaking news the minute it happens and additionally receive live updates. With this aspect to the popular app, users across the world are efficiently able to gain knowledge about the events happening around them.

## History

Twitter was founded on March 21, 2006 in San Francisco, California by a few famous people including Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass.
It was originally known as "twttr." When the app was first released, users actually had no way of commenting on other tweets, instead, they found ways of "tagging" people in their own tweets by using the @ symbol followed by their username.

## Features

The social media app is known mainly for its access given to users to post, like, and retweet their own or other users' posts known as "tweets."
Each tweet allows the individual user to say anything they'd like, as long as it follows community guidelines, for up to 140 characters.
Over the years, Twitter has become one of the most well-known social networking applications that continues to be used for discovering news about political reasons, breaking news, worldwide events, and personal day-to-day events.

## Competition

While it remains one of the most accredited social networking sites, Twitter faces many other companies who wish to compete with its success on receiving breaking news.
Other developments such as Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook are all strong competitors for incentivising their users to encounter reports through their sites.
Due to the fact that a large majority of famous people or important political officials (such as President Donald Trump) are actively posting updates on Twitter, social media users today have begun to rely on their tweets to receive news about worldwide events.

## World Disasters (Coronavirus)

Twitter, along with Facebook and YouTube, have received critics of the breaking news each social media site shares.
During times of turmoil or panic, social media is one of the first places people go to in order to catch up on the latest updates. The spread of the coronavirus in 2020 has sparked a huge variety of posts on all different sites, which have created the practice of spreading misinformation or fake news that users are constantly interfaced with.
With these deceptions, people are unsure what to believe about each situation, and the publishers of the sites have finally started to crack down on posts that are incorrect with information. Twitter, in hopes of guiding users to the facts, has established links that will direct people to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") whenever users search the term "coronavirus."

## Successes

Twitter has repeatedly been publicly recognized for its success in reaching news globally to its users and continues to be praised today.
Its timely, organized listings display news and tweets about each topic as they appear and by relevance.
Hashtags allow for each tweet to be put under that category or topic, topics that are most viewed or looked at shoot up to the "Trending" list so that it is one of the first things users see, and the small size of the tweets allow users to quickly be able to gain an understanding of what is happening or what the topic is about in an efficient but informative way.

## External Links

History of Twitter
Why Use Twitter
An example of a verified account on Twitter that posts breaking news