Journalist Tweet Addiction: Love Of Drama & Status

Two interesting posts came up that I read, which highlighted why journalists are sticking with twitter when it appears folks in other industries are moving on to alternatives.

I believe @caseynewton@mastodon.social summed up half the reasons why Journalists refuse to abandon Twitter:

The second answer, I think, lies in the power of chaos to command our attention. Just as Trump’s tumultuous White House constantly kept the news cycle off balance, so, too, does Musk’s erratic leadership of reporters’ favorite website. (Platformer News)

Twitter, for what it is worth, is still a hyper drama social network, & like a moth is attracted to the deadly flame, so are journalists attracted to the drama they view on Twitter.

The other reason journalists love Twitter is the status of the legendary blue check mark (that is not so legendary any more).

As @atomicpoet@mastodon.social perfectly elaborates:

People in favor of creating Blue Check status on the Fediverse don’t like acknowledging that it’s about social status. They claim that they’re purely concerned about account verification. But account verification already exists on the Fediverse, so why do you want a Blue Check here anyway?

Because the Fediverse’s current account verification doesn’t carry the same weight as a Blue Check when it comes to social status. (Chris Trottier on HedgeDoc)

I believe these two reasons are why most journalists will stay on Twitter until the lights turn off.

Most social networks like Instagram, Mastodon, Youtube, Pixelfed, Tumblr, Misskey, etcetera, lack both of these attributes (sometimes intentionally).

Advertiser friendly social networks avoid drama to please their real customers (which is advertisers as they pay the bills). Folks on decentralized social networks usually filter out drama in their timelines.

This is why journalists keep going back to Twitter, as well as why a credible replacement of the blue bird will probably not appear for quite some time.

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