JMS+375+Group+6

= How Twitter Is A Breaking News Source On Global Scandals and Gossip Worldwide = ﻿ Due: ﻿May 2, 2011
 * By Group # 6 **: Kelly Bohon, Jenna Henry, Mariel Kalda, Marin Morales, Chardonnay Ray, Ryan Schuler, Erin Shintaku, Natalie Smithers, Deisarey St. Andre



__Introduction __
 By**: ** Chardonnay Ray With the creation of Twitter and the advancement of the Web, the world has almost said, “Goodbye” to the evening news, the daily local newspaper, or the next issue of “Us” magazine. The public no longer has to wait days or hours to hear about the latest scandal. Twitter has become the solution to informing people all around the world and it has bridged the gap that’s left people unaware and out of the loop.

The public is the first to tweet about the latest scandal that involves everyone from celebrities to politicians to advocate groups and so on. Breaking news stories are no longer constrained and ruled by licensed or accredited journalists. Regular Jane and John Does have turned into journalists and taken on the names of “Tweeters, Twitterers, Twitters, Twits, even the Twitterati.”

Because Twitter has become one of the top media outlets for news scandal stories, news stations have now exposed themselves to social media. Instead of fighting the new trend; companies, newspapers, and magazines have conformed and adapted to the new age.

Having a Twitter account, means having a connection and being the first to hear about the celebrity doing drugs, or the politician and his sex parties. Whether it’s on your smart phone, laptop or iPad, Twitter has become a personal news source –in 140 characters or less, of course.

__**1. History of Twitter As A Social Media Site** __
By**: ** Natalie Smithers Inspired by the photo sharing website “Flickr”, Twitter was originally called “Twttr” by founders Evan Williams, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey. Williams, and Stone, former Google employees, were currently involved with their pod-casting website Odea. In 2005, the men decided to abandon the project for "Twttr" after iTunes was announced by Apple, predicting the company would dominate the pod-casting scene. After a sample was finally agreed upon, Twttr was privately launched in San Francisco in March of 2006. The company went public the following August after word of a small earthquake in San Francisco traveled via the website. The earthquake accumulated thousands of users for the website, and it transformed into “Twitter”. Twitter’s appeal is centered around its multi-faceted capabilities. It is a social networking site, instant messaging tool, and blog in real time, all in a single website.



**Scandals Effected By Twitter and Social Media**

__**2. Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian Twitter Scandal** __
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**:** Kelly Bohon With all of the new outlets of social media that surround the world today, it is very difficult to keep scandals and gossip secret. News sources often turn to social media outlets to gather facts about stories they are reporting on. As said above, Twitter is a new outlet of social media that is prime for spreading scandals and information worldwide. A current uprising going on outside of the United States is the scandal involving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi is being investigated for having sex with 17-year-old prostitute, Karima el-Mahroug, in his Milan villa. Berlusconi is currently hiding his involvement in the case.

To show the power of Twitter and how scandals can spread so quickly, an experimental tweet-wall was displayed on a giant television in the main hall of the European Union summit in Brussels. At this summit, 27 European leaders were meeting to discuss a crisis regarding debt when they were able to read displayed twitter postings bashing Berlusconi on large plasma screens. It was the negative tweets that eventually shut down the EU tweet-wall experiment. This alone shows how powerful using Twitter as a social media source truly is.

Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, can be followed on Twitter @euHvR ([|http://twitter.com/#!/euHvR]).



Once news broke out of the scandal, Italian Twitter users bombarded the twitter walls with Silvio Berlusconi insults, letting the world know how they truly felt about their leader. Italian Tweet- walls were calling the Prime Minister “a mafioso” and “a paedophile.” Italian citizens constantly used the twitter hashtag EUCO (#EUCO) representing the European Union Council Press to protest Berlusconi. A hashtag is something used in tweets that uses the prefix “#”and is a way that allows people to search for tweets that have common topics. One tweet regarding Berlusconi reads, ** “Berlusconi pays for sex, for votes, for mafia protection, for everything he can buy. What he cannot buy will be stolen." **Tweets were even used to warn the world about the drama occurring at the European Union summit.

An article from EU Weekly says, “This story shows how much twitter can be a place where people can express their opinion and be part of a protesting campaign, with a real effect.” As shown in the Silvio Berlusconi case, critics and citizens in Italy seized the opportunity to embarrass the Prime Minister through displayed twitter streams. Other individuals around the world also seized the opportunity to use Twitter as a social media source to keep the world updated on the ongoing scandal.

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__<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">3. The Chris Brown Scandal __
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**:** Mariel Kalda The media went wild when reports surfaced of celebrity couple, Chris Brown and Rihanna, getting into a physical altercation before The Grammy Awards in 2009. Instead of performing "Forever" onstage at Los Angeles Staples' Center he was being detained and questioned by LAPD. Sources say that while the couple was arguing in the car, Rihanna tried to get out and Brown grabbed her and started to hit her. She was taken to the hospital and he was arrested. Brown faced professional consequences for his actions like being dropped from his Wrigley's gum ad campaign. Photos of Rihanna’s bruised face started showing up all over the Internet on sites like Perezhilton.com and TMZ.com.

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The event was so publicized and there are many YouTube videos about what happened and even parody videos of the situation resulting from the amount of publicity. Fans took to blogs and Twitter as outlets to discuss their opinions and frustrations with the incident. Many people actually came to Chris Brown’s defense and felt that he was treated unfairly in the situation. Because of these sites, the public was able to express their views in a way that would not normally have been so accessible for such a high profile case. Chris Brown eventually deleted his Twitter account after claiming stores were "blackballing" his new album, <span style="font-family: arial,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">"Graffiti" due to the situation. Brown's final tweet reads, "I WANNA THANK MY FANS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT, I LOVE YALL. GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!!!!" ======



__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**4. The Charlie Sheen Scandal** __
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**:** Ryan Schuler Charlie Sheen is no stranger to controversy. Known for his bad boy, party ways, Sheen has found himself under the microscope of the media since the early 1990s after dating several pornographic actresses as well as confessing to using his dad’s credit card to pay a Las Vegas prostitute to lose his virginity at the age of 15.

Sheen’s most recent controversy has spread like wildfire because of the use of social media. According to multiple reports, Sheen was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by paramedics after the actor complained of severe abdominal pains. TMZ reported Sheen was having a "wild" marathon party with five women prior to the incident. It was also reported that the “Two and a Half Men” star had a "briefcase full of cocaine" delivered to his home and was using large amounts of the drug during the 36-hour binge that landed him in the hospital according to a source inside the house. The actor then voluntarily checked himself in to an undisclosed rehab facility earlier after the incident and the show was placed on indefinite hiatus while he underwent treatment. The show was then shut down for the remaining episodes of the season. Soon after, Sheen was fired from the sitcom."After careful consideration, Warner Brothers Television has Charlie Sheen's services on Two and a Half Men, ineffective immediately," the studio said. Since his dismissal, Sheen has continued to criticize the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre.

Social media, specifically Twitter, is the main reason this story garnered as much attention as it did. Every news outlet covering this development first broke the story via Twitter. Outlets such as CNN, TMZ, and FOX News tweeted the breaking news the morning of Jan. 27, 2011. After seeing numerous tweets posted, followers of these outlets used the social medium to comment on the situation or simply retweet what was already said. Fans also took charge to comment on Sheen's celebrity Facebook page as well as the Facebook page of "Two and a Half Men." From there, news spread rapidly thorugh the Internet. At that point in time, Sheen did not have a Twitter page of his own, making him unable to comment on the situation in his own words.

Yet, on March 1, 2011 Sheen joined Twitter and in a matter of minutes acquired more that 60,000 followers without even tweeting according to information from PCmag.com. The infamous hashtags "#Winning" and "#TigerBlood" can be attributed to the entertaining, yet unstable actor. He then won the rare honor of the "Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers," Guiness World Record as reported by the Los Angeles Times. According to Guiness community manager Dan Barrett, Sheen reached that milestone in just 25 hours and 17 minutes. As of this April 20, 2011 Sheen's Twitter account, @CharlieSheen, tops 3.5 million followers.



As you can see, social media played a very large role in the releasing of information and current developments in regards to Sheen’s life. Without social media, news of Sheen’s hospitalization and employment termination would have been delayed and less discussed between fans and followers. Sheen has truly taken advantage of social media and used it to help create publicity about himself as well as keep fans updated on his current situation.

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__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Conclusion** __
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**:** Jenna Henry With how far we've come and how fast we've advanced in the world of social media within the last decade it's hard to say what to expect in years to come. What we can conclude from the stories above, among many others, is that the world of news is changing. We are becoming a flatter world in the sense of communication. We have opened the door to instant access to others lives and global happenings. What we choose to do with this access and how to regulate it will forever be a learning process.

Since its creation just five years ago, Twitter has already undergone many changes; some by choice and others forced by the rapid growth of the site itself. With the slogan, "Follow Your Interest," Twitter has become one of the top leading media sites for individuals as well as organizations.

Twitter especially, has forced those in the public eye to become more self aware and accountable. So many celebrities and businesses have been caught under fire due to the quickness of scandals/gossip news spread throughout the world of social media. In the world of social-networking Twitter is the cool kid on campus. Everyone wants to know what's up and coming and fights to stay in the loop. In 140 characters or less Twitter has completely reshaped the way we receive news and the only question is, where will we go from here?

__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Sources:** __

 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 25px;"> http://indyconcerts.com/music-news/rihanna-photo-leaked/  ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px;">New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times (blog),   ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px;">http://.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/02/10/chaos-chris-brown-rihanna-mess/  ====
 * ====<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 25px; text-decoration: none;"> [|http://twitter.com/#!/charliesheen] ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px;">[] ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px;">[] ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 25px;"> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381266,00.asp ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 25px;"> __ [] __ ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 25px;"> __ [] __ ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 25px;"> [|__http://www.zimbio.com/Silvio+Berlusconi/articles/AVqqyVAUsx8/Anti+Berlusconi+Tweets+Fill+Summit+Screens__] ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://articles.cnn.com/2009-12-14/entertainment/chris.brown.twitter_1_tweeted-chris-brown-microblogging?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ ====
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 * ====<span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntr1Y4H8vxA ====
 * ====http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FguCfU_L6Q====
 * ====http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVAiu-UngMA====
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 * http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi (source for picture images)