The Harvard Reference System and citing tweets

Earlier this year The Modern Language Association (MLA) decided to devise a standard format to assist students and researchers who liked to cite data found on Twitter. Given that Twitter is increasingly becoming a place in which news can break, frequently ahead of mainstream channels, then it makes perfect sense to attempt to accommodate this platform. The MLA system works well with how Twitter functions.

They advise researchers that citation should being the entry in the works cited list (aka the bibliography) with the author's real name followed by the Twitter user name in parentheses. When only the user name is known, default to that. What should follow this is the entire text from the tween in quotation marks. Spelling mistakes and capitalisation should remain exact (don't change anything!). Finally, the entry should include the date and time of the message and the medium of the publication (in this case, Tweet). Here's an example:

Jewitt, Rob (@rob_jewitt). "The problem with nerd politics gu.com/p/37hyb" 14 May 2012, 8:55pm. Tweet 

If citing the tweet in the body of a paper the MLA recommends it is cited in its entirety.

Now this might seem fairly straightforwards but I do find it curious that the MLA ignores the unique URL provided by a tweet. After all, every status posted has it's own page. The above example could easily be supplemented by the link: http://twitter.com/#!/rob_jewitt/status/202124949522104322. I'd have thought that this would have been essential given that the exact timings on Twitter are subject to the timezone of the reader rather than the poster, meaning errors can occur.

The Harvard Reference system and web sources

At the time of writing there is no formal guidance for how to cite a tweet within the structure of the Harvard Reference (HR) system , but it should be possible to work within the current guidance dealing with websites and adapt the MLA system to come up with a solution. There are even automated tools like the CiteThisForMe page that attempt to auto format sources but it struggles with Twitter.

Students at Sunderland are encouraged to use the HR system as outlined by the resources over on the University Library Services site (direct link to "Cite them right" guide).

The common approach to citing an electronic source, like a website is to include the following info in this order:

• Author
• Year that the site was published/last updated (in parentheses)
• Title of Internet site (in italics)
• Available at: URL
• (Accessed: date)

There may be instances where the author is not known but the page includes a title, so that should be used instead. There may even be instances where neither of these can be identified, meaning that the only information that can be provided is the page URL. As you can see, this is less than ideal. Many sites and blogs are happy to identify an author or contributor, so where these are provided then they should be used accordingly. There are also extra fields (highlighted) to deal with:

• Author of message
• Year that the site was published/last updated (in parentheses)
• Title of message (in quotation marks)
• Title of Internet site (in italics)
• Day / month of posted message
• Available at: URL
• (Accessed: date)

So, following these rules,  this authored Lifehacker article should look something like this:

Thorin Klosowski (2012) 'Living in Public: What Happens When You Throw Privacy Out The Window', Lifehacker, 26 April. Available at http://lifehacker.com/5905347/living-in-public-what-happens-when-you-throw-privacy-out-the-window (Accessed: 15 May 2012)

Citing a tweet in the Harvard Reference system

By drawing on the guidance for citing blogs, then it's possible to come up with some easy to follow rules for citing Twitter. It is a micro-blogging service after all. The following example will use the tweet I employed in the MLA example above coupled with the HR advice for citing blogs. I propose the following method:

• Author of message (Twitter user name in parentheses)
• Year that the status was published (in parentheses)
• Full message (in quotation marks)
• Title of Internet site (in italics)
• Day / month / time of posted message
• Available at: URL
• (Accessed: date)

The aforementioned tweet should look something like this in the bibliography:

Rob Jewitt (@rob_jewitt) (2012), "The problem with nerd politics gu.com/p/37hyb", Twitter, 14 May 2012, 8:55pm. Available at http://twitter.com/#!/rob_jewitt/status/202124949522104322 (Accessed: 15 May 2012)

It might look a little cumbersome but it has the advantage over the MLA system in that it is more accurate and helpful for anyone else who might want to refer to the same message, or even check its veracity. This is by no means a definitive solution but it is an attempt to be consistent. Comments and feedback welcome

Celebrity tweets

Recently, a student emailed me about a piece she was writing for DN magazine about Twitter and how celebrities are using the service to broadcast info about their private lives, whilst also complaining about their privacy being violated. Saying as this material fits nicely with the session I will be delivering on MAC301 in a few weeks I thought I'd post my response to the email here.

Mac Social Media And The New Publicness

View more presentations from Rob Jewitt.

I've been reading (ie blind referring for a scholarly journal) a little academic material recently about the ways in which celebrities use services like Twitter to manage their public personas in order to present what seems like an authentic version of themselves for their fans to consume. The internet, generally, has had a significant impact on celebrity culture in that it has fostered a large range of outlets through which ideas and discussion about celebrities can circulate. Forums, fan sites, blogs and social media (like Twitter) all play a part in offering us unprecedented access to celebrity content - some of it official, some of it unofficial.

What makes Twitter interesting and unique is that it seems to offer an uncensored and intimate point of access. Celebrities (or even people posing as celebrities) can grant their fans or followers what seems like highly personal contact. Many even respond to comments or question in a public replay (eg @username). Some, like Mariah Carey, opt to send messages to their fans using the private 'direct message' reply.

There is a danger that we read a little too much into the supposed legitimacy of the celebrity on Twitter. Not all celebrities are who they claim to be - many of the Twitter accounts of the most famous celebrities, like Britney Spears, are frequently attributed to Britney herself, but also her manager and her website. It's also not uncommon for 'ghost writers' to be employed by high profile celebrities who write posts in the 'voice' or style of the author they represent. It's not always easy to distinguish these writers from the 'real' celebrity - but then again, its questionable if the general public ever really get access to the real, authentic celebrity in other media forms

The celebrity image or persona is 'performed' and 'managed' by stylists and PR teams who frequently brief their employers on what to say, where to be seen and who to be seen with. Twitter could be seen as an extension of that kind of practice. However, their are many celebrities who do use the service as a way of performing what seems like intimacy with their followers. I can imagine that this is part of the appeal for celebrities and fans alike. Appearing at ease with your fame can be advantageous and useful for promoting the brand that is the celebrity identity (ie Katie Price). How honest this kind of communication or authentic is is debatable on the whole. The fact that a celebrity might be accessing their Twitter account from the mobile phone in their pockets or handbags does at least suggest a sense of potential intimacy and this is where Twitter has been successful for the celebrity-stalking fan

Some followers even go out of their way to anger and incite their chosen celebrity victims in order to solicit a response from them, while others may be more flattering.

The web and the tools we find on it (ie Twitter) are great at offering us what seems like more direct access to folk, but their seems to be an unwritten contract between those people who publish things in public and those that consume said material that if you opt to put it out there, then you cannot complain about the invasion of privacy that might come along with that. I'm not sure that having a public presence gives followers a carte-blanche rationale for invasive behaviour, but being able to control your own public facing platform certainly seems to be appealing to those people who bemoan the interference of gossip columnists and the paparazzi.

I'm not sure how influential Twitter is - it may be too early to tell, or it may be that the general creep of social media into our everyday lives is forcing a blurring of the boundaries between what was once considered private and what is now thought to be public. It seems like some commentators are suggesting that Twitter's popularity has peaked, but again, it may be too early to tell. Once thing is for sure, it's never been easier to use social media tools to get what seems like direct access to celebrities. Whether or not that access is genuine or authentic depends on the celebrity

File under procrastination...

I'm meant to be writing or marking. It's the weekend and I can't find the motivation to do either. Instead, I'll play with Twitter and Tweetcloud and make up a nice tag cloud based on the last 12 months worth of tweets

Here's the list of words tagged in order of the most frequently used:

media iphone time greader music students feed free google post week piracy found apple copyright news blog newcastle industry thanks people digital please watching reader facebook nice paper social looking email little internet start looks sunderland lost read future live online trying bought users currently change getting wife games journalism guardian pirate version believe marking look season site help hours

Panic in the streets of Mumbai

Gave a short (20 min) paper at the University of Sunderland post-graduate research day on the use of Twitter in the Mumbai terrorist attacks context (Nov 2008). Will post slides and more details here soon

Slides should be available from here soon

Panic in the streets of Mumbai

View more presentations from Rob Jewitt.

MAC301 essay question 3

For any of the students interested in tackling the third essay question (the one with the McLuhan quote about the media being put out before it is thought out), I just want to recommend the Guardian Tech Weekly podcast. This week the team look at the problems facing new media start-ups in light of the economic downturn and they have an interview with the man behind micro-blogging service Twitter, Biz Stone. This comes on the back of the failed potentail acquistion of Twitter by Facebook.

Get the podcast from here

The Guardian are not the only media platform discussing the role of Twitter this week. Over on the BBC's Digital Planet, they were looking at the role Twitter played in keeping people informed during the recent Mumbai terror attacks. You can catch that show here, or at least until the iPlayer 7 day rule kicks in. Radio 4's The Media Show also has a feature on it - get it here (same rules apply, I think)

The use of social media tools during the Mumbai incident has caused a stir. The Guardian's PDA blog talks about the use of unsubstantiated claims from the general public here. The Independent's Tom Sutcliffe has been very critical in his opinion piece here.

The Media Centre hits Twitter

In a desperate (heh heh) attempt to stay current, I have created a Twitter account dedicated to the University of Sunderland's Media Centre. If you don't know what Twitter is then you can describe it as free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length (source: wikipedia).

Essentially, it's a publicly visible site that post messages similar like a mobile SMS, except anyone can see providing the y know the address. You can find the Media Centre's Twitter account by typing the URL into your browser: http://twitter.com/mediacentre

The idea is that I will pass the login/password details around the Media Centre staff so that we can keep students up to date with things specific to the building.

The kind of things we might post on Twitter will include:

• notices for last minute room changes
• cancellations of sessions (staff illness)
• upcoming assessment hand-in dates
• notifications of events (guest speakers)
• important dates

This list isn't exhaustive by any means and is open to suggestions. If there are any students out there who want more specific things included then send me a message either here or via my normal work email address.

I think that it's a good idea if the person posting the 'tweet' (the message) identifies themselves with a either their initials or a short recognisable acronym. I've been posting as 'Rob' but I might just switch to 'RJ' in future as its shorter.

Students can access the updates anywhere they are online, via their laptops, web-enabled mobile phones and iPhones/iPod Touches, etc. Data costs may vary depending on how you access the site.

If you think this is a good/bad idea then get in touch. I'd like to hear your feedback.

Twitter + Digg = Twiggit

I've just been alerted to a new service which combines Twitter with Digg in an interesting way called Twiggit. Essentially, Twiggit allows you to update your Twitter feed with any story you have recently dug on Digg. Cosmetically, it looks pretty similar to Twitterfeed which updates your Twitter feed with posts from your RSS feed reader. Now I had a little difficulty in getting Twitterfeed to work at first as there seemed to be a mismatch between the two services (which is now fixed).

However, Twiggit didn't seem to have any of those problems - it was very easy to get started (you only need your Digg ID and then you provide Twiggit with your Twitter ID and login details). Once you are in you can customise the service to update either articles you have dug(g) (Digged?!) or just articles you have submitted to Digg. You can also get Twiggit to update frequently, from once every 5 minutes to just once per day. This is a bit of a Godsend in that if you are not a Twitter fiend who tweets every waking moment of the day, you can end up with a Twitter feed which is full of automated responses and seems pretty depersonalised. Twiggit gets around that by handing control over to you.

I'm more of a fan of del.ico.us than Digg but I'm interested to see how these two services combine. The convergence of social networking tools are on the increase...

Twitterfeed

I have been trying to get the RSS feed from my Google Reader posts to appear in my Twitter feed. I stumbled across Twitterfeed, a site which purports to do just that with a limited if fair amount of customization options.

However, I have struggled to get the stories to feed through which is odd. I'm not sure whether the issue is with Twitter, Google Reader or Twitterfeed itself. I was getting a few 404 errors with Twitterfeed yesterday when I tried to signup for it using my OpenID.

I have set it to update every 3 hours. I guess I'll have to wait and see....
[edit] It seems like the URL for the Google Reader page couldn't be parsed so I went back and found the correct atom RSS link and that still had issues. Oh well, looks like I'll give up on this one.

Also, Twitter addicts might want to have a look at TweetDeck, an application based on the Adobe Air platform. Looks interesting and full of features. Gina Trapani over at Lifehacker has been singing its praises recently:

TweetDeck's killer feature is its ability to separate the people you follow on Twitter into groups—like "Don't Miss," "Co-workers," and "Chatty types." That way while tweets by the prolific folks fly by in one pane, infrequent tweets from people you don't want to miss stay bookmarked on top in another

Sounds pretty useful.